
Uzs 



COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT 




SANTA ANNA, 



WITH 



MEXICO 

AND ITS RELIGION 

INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL IN THAT COUNTRY DURING- 
PARTS OF THE YEARS 1851-52-53-54, 



HISTORICAL NOTICES OF EVENTS CONNECTED WITH 
PLACES VISITED. 



BY ROBERT A. WILSON 



/2/ 



WITH ILLUSTRATIONS. 




NEW YORK: 
HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, 

FRANKLIN SQUARE. 

s 1855. 



iA^— ^/^ &+*. 4r-f w • 



Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year one thou- 
sand eight hundred and fifty-five, by 

HARPER & BROTHERS, 

In the Clerk's Office for the Southern District of New York. 






TO 



THE AMERICAN PARTY OF THE UNITED STATES, 



THE FOLLOWING PAGES 



gtre 3kesj)ectf ullg ^eMcatetJ. 



PREFACE. 



The custom of mingling together historical events 
with the incidents of travel, of amusement with instruc- 
tion, is rather a Spanish than American practice ; and in 
adopting it, I must crave the indulgence of those of my 
readers who read only for instruction, as well as of those 
who read only for amusement. 

The evidence that I have adduced to prove that the 
yellow fever is not an American, hut an African disease, 
imported in slave-ships, and periodically renewed from 
those cargoes of human rottenness and putrefaction, I 
hope will be duly considered. 

The picture of inner convent life, and the inimitable 
gambling scene in the convent of San Francis, I have 
not dared to present on my own responsibility, nor even 
that of the old English black-letter edition of Friar 
Thomas, but I have reproduced it from the expurgated 
Spanish edition, which has passed the censors, and must 
therefore be considered official. 

I have presumed to follow the great Las Casas, who 
called all the historians of the Conquest of Mexico liars ; 
and though his labored refutation of their fictions has 
disappeared, yet, fortunately, the natural evidences of 
their untruth still remain. Having before me the sur- 
veys and the levels of our own engineers, I have pre- 
sumed to doubt that water ever ran up hill, that naviga- 
ble canals were ever fed by "back water," that pyramids 



IV PREFACE. 

(teocalli) could rest on a foundation of soft earth, that 
a canal twelve feet broad by twelve feet deep, mostly be- 
low the water level, was ever dug by Indians with their 
rude implements, that gardens ever floated in mud, or 
that brigantines ever sailed in a salt marsh, or even that 
100,000 men ever entered the mud-built city of Mexico 
by a narrow causeway in the morning, and after fight- 
ing all day returned by the same path at night to their 
camp, or that so large a besieging army as 150,000 men 
could be supported in a salt-marsh valley, surrounded 
by high mountains. 

In answer to the question why such fables have so 
long passed for history, I have the ready answer, that 
the Inquisition controlled every printing-office in Spain 
and her colonies, and its censors took good care that 
nothing should be printed against the fair fame of so 
good a Christian as Cortez, who had painted upon his 
banner an image of the Immaculate Virgin, and had be- 
stowed upon her a large portion of his robbery ; who had 
gratified the national taste for holy wars by writing one 
of the finest of Spanish romances of history ; who had 
induced the Emperor to overlook his crime of levying war 
without a royal license by the bestowal of rich presents 
and rich provinces ; so that, by the favor of the Empe- 
ror and the favor of the Inquisition, & filibuster o, whose 
atrocities surpassed those of every other on record, has 
come down to us as a Christian hero. 

The innumerable little things about their Indian 
mounds force the conviction on the experienced eye of 
an American traveler that the Aztecs were a horde of 
North American savages, who had precipitated them- 
selves first upon the table-land, and afterward, like the 



PREFACE. V 

Goths from the table-lands of Spain, extended their con- 
quests over the expiring civilization of the coast coun- 
try ; and this idea is confirmed by the fact that the mag- 
nificent Toltec monuments of a remote antiquity, discov- 
ered in the tropical forests, were apparently unknown to 
the Aztecs. The conquest of Mexico, like our conquest 
of California, was in itself a small affair ; but both being 
immediately followed by extensive discoveries of the 
precious metals, Mexico rose as rapidly into opulence 
as San Francisco has in our day. 

The evidence that I have presented of the inexhaust- 
ible supplies of silver in Northern Mexico, near the route 
of our proposed Pacific Railroad, may be interesting to 
legislators. These masses of silver lie as undisturbed 
by their present owners as did the Mexican discoveries 
of gold in California before the American conquest, from 
the inertness of the local population, and the want of fa- 
cilities of communication with the city of Mexico. 

The notion that the Mormons are destined to overrun 
Mexico is, of course, only an inference drawn from the 
exact parallel that exists between the circumstances un- 
der which this delusion has arisen and propagated itself 
and the history of Mohammedanism from its rise until it 
overran the degenerated Christians of 'the Eastern empire. 

From want of space, I have been obliged to omit 
much valuable original matter procured for me by offi- 
cers of government at the palace of Mexico, to whom, 
for the kind attention that I have upon all occasions re- 
ceived from them, I heartily return my most sincere 

thanks. 

E. A. WILSON. 

Rochester, Sebtember 1st, 1855. 



CONTENTS, 



CHAPTER I. 

Arrival at Vera Cruz. — Its appearance from the Steamer. — Getting 
Ashore. — Within the City. — Throwing Stones at an Image. — An- 
tiquity of Vera Cruz. — Its Commerce. — The great Norther of 1852. 
— A little Steamer rides out the Tempest. — The Vomito, or Yellow 
Fever. — Ravages of the Vomito. — The Vomito brought from Africa 
in Slave-ships. — A curious old Book. — Our Monk arrives at Vera 
Cruz, and what befalls him there. — Life in a Convent. — A nice 
young Prior. — Our Monk finds himself in another World... Page 15 

CHAPTER II. 

An historical Sketch. — Truth seldom spoken of Santa Anna. — Santa 
Anna's early Life. — Causes of the Revolution. — The Virgin Mary's 
Approval of King Eerdinand. — The Inquisition imprisons the Vice- 
King. — Santa Anna enters the King's Army. — The plan of Iguala. 
— The War of the two Virgins. — Santa Anna pronounces for Inde- 
pendence 30 

CHAPTER III. 

Incidents of Travel. — The Great Road to the Interior. — Mexican Dili- 
gences. — The Priest was the first Passenger robbed. — The National 
Bridge. — A Conducta of Silver. — Our Monk visits Old Vera Cruz. — 
They grant to the Indians forty Years of Indulgence in return for 
their Hospitality. — The Artist among Robbers. — Mexican Scholars 
in the United States. — Encerro 39 

CHAPTER IV. 

Jalapa. — The extraordinary Beauty and Fertility of this Spot. — Jalap, 
Sarsaparilla, Myrtle, Vanilla, Cochineal, and Wood of Tobasco. — 
The charming Situation of Jalapa. — Its Flowers and its Fruits. — Mag- 
nificent Views. — The tradition that Jalapa was Paradise. — A speck 
of War. — The Marriage of a Heretic. — A gambling Scene in a 
Convent 52 



Vlll CONTENTS. 



CHAPTEE V. 

The War of the Secret Political Societies of Mexico. — The Scotch and 
the York Free-Masons. — Anti-Masons. — Rival Classes compose Scotch 
Lodges. — The Yorkinos. — Men desert from the Scotch to the York 
Lodges. — Law to suppress Secret Societies. — The Escoces, or Scotch 
Masons, take up arms. — The Battle. — Their total Defeat... Page 68 

CHAPTER VI. 

Mexico becomes an Empire. — Santa Anna deposes the Emperor. — He 
proclaims a Republic. — He pronounces against the Election of Ped- 
raza, the second President. — His Situation in the Convent at Oajaca. 
— He captures the Spanish Armada. — And is made General of 
Division 73 

CHAPTER VII. 

In the Stage and out of the Stage. — Still climbing. — A moment's View 
of all the Kingdoms of the World. — Again in Obscurity. — The Ma- 
guey, or Century Plant. — The many uses of the Maguey. — The in- 
toxicating juice of the Maguey. — Pulque. — Immense Consumption 
of Pulque. — City of Perote. — Castle of San Carlos de Perote. — Star- 
light upon the Table-land. — Tequisquita. — " The Bad Land." — A 
very old Beggar. — Arrive at Puebla 79 

CHAPTER VIII. 

Puebla. — The Miracle of the Angels. — A City of Priests. — Marianna 
in Bronze. — The Vega of Puebla. — First View of the Pyramid of 
Cholula. — Modern Additions to it. — The View from its Top. — Quet- 
zalcoatl. — Cholula and Tlascala. — Cholula without the Poetry. — 
Indian Relics 88 

CHAPTER IX. 

A Ride to Popocatapetl. — The Village of Atlizco. — The old Man of 
Atlizco and the Inquisition. — A novel Mode of Escape. — An aveng- 
ing Ghost. — The Vice-King Ravillagigedo. — The Court of the Vice- 
King and the Inquisition. — Ascent of Popocatapetl. — Plow a Par- 
ty perished by Night. — The^ Crater and the House in it. — Descent 
into the Crater. — The Interior. — The Workmen in the Volcano. — 
The View from Popocatapetl. — The first White that climbed Popo- 
catapetl. — The Story of Corchado. — Corchado converts the Volcano 
into a Sulphui'-mine >. 101 

CHAPTER X. 

Texas. — Battle of Madina. — First Introduction of Americans into Tex- 
as. — Usm-pation of Bustamente. — Texas owed no Allegiance to the 



CONTENTS. IX 

Usurper. — The good Faith of the United States in the Acquisition of 
Louisiana and Texas. — Santa Anna pronounces against Bustamente. 
— Santa Anna in Texas. — A Mexican's Denunciation of the Texan 
War. — His Idea of our Revolution. — He complains of our grasp- 
ing Spirit. — The right of the United States to occupy unsettled Ter- 
ritory. — A few more Pronunciamientos of Santa Anna. — The Ad- 
ventures of Santa Anna to the present Date Page 113 

CHAPTER XL 

Prom Puebla to Mexico. — The Dread of Robbers. — The Escort. — Tlas- 
cala. — The Exaggerations of Cortez and Bernal Diaz. — The Truth 
about Tlascala. — The Advantages of Tlascala to Cortez. — Who was 
Bernal Diaz. — Who wrote his History. — Pirst View of Mexico. 122 

CHAPTER XII. 

Acapulco. — The Advantages of a Western Voyage to India. — The great 
annual Fair of Acapulco. — The Village and Harbor of Acapulco. — 
The War of Santa Anna and Alvarez. — The Retreat. — Traveling 
alone and unarmed. — The Peregrino Pass. — Quiricua and Cretinism. 
— Chilpanzingo. — An ill-clad Judge. — Iguala. — Alpayaca. — Cuarna- 
vaca , 132 

CHAPTER XIII. 

California. — Pearl Fisheries. — Missions. — Indian Marriages. — Villages. 
— Precious Metals. — The Conquest of California compared with that 
of Mexico. — Upper California under the Spaniards. — Mexican Con- 
quest of California in 1825. — The March. — The Conquest. — Califor- 
nia under the Mexicans. — American Conquest. — Sinews of foreign 
Wars. — A Protestant and religious War. — Early Settlers compared. 
— Mexico in the Heyday of Prosperity. — Rich Costume of the Wom- 
en. — Superstitious Worship. — When I first saw California. — Lawyers 
without Laws. — A primitive Court. — A Territorial Judge in San 
Francisco. — Mistaken Philanthropy. — Mexican Side of the Picture. 
— Great Alms. — City of Mexico overwhelmed by a Water-spout. — 
The Superiority of Californians 142 

CHAPTER XIV. 

First Sight of the Valley of Mexico. — A Venice in a mountain Valley. 
— An Emperor waiting his Murderers. — Cortez mowing down un- 
armed Indians. — A new kind of Piety. — Capture of an Emperor. — 
Torturing an Emperor to Death. — The Children paying the Penalty 
of their Fathers' Crimes. — The Aztecs and other Indians. — The Dif- 
ference is in the Historians. — The Superstitions of the Indians. — 
The Valley of Mexico. — An American Survey of the Valley. — A 
topographical View. — The Ponds Chalco, Xochimulco, and Tezcuco 
were never Lakes 167 



CONTENTS. 



CHAPTER XV. 

The Two Valleys.— The Lake with a leaky Bottom.— The Water could 
not have been higher. — Nor could the Lagunas or Ponds have been 
much deeper. — The Brigantines only flat-bottomed Boats. — The 
Causeway Canals fix the size of the Brigantines. — The Street Ca- 
nals. — Stagnant Water unfit for Canals. — The probable Dimensions 
of the City Canals. — Difficulties of disproving a Fiction. — A Dike or 
Levee. — The Canal of Huehuetoca. — The Map of Cortez. — Wise 
Provision of Providence. — The Fiction about the numerous Cities 
in and about the Lake Page 176 

CHAPTER XVI. 

The Chinampas or Water Gardens. — Laws of Nature not set aside. — 
Mud will not float. — The present Chinampas. — They never could 
have been floating Gardens. — Relations of the Chinampas to the an- 
cient State of the Lake in the Valley 186 

CHAPTER XVII. 

The gambling Festival of San Augustine. — Suppressed by Government. 
— The Losses of the Saint by the Suppression of Gambling. — How 
Travelers live in the Interior. — A Visit to the Palace 192 

CHAPTER XVHI. 

Visit to Contreras and San Angel. — The End of a brave Soldier. — A 
Place of Skulls. — A New England Dinner. — An Adventure with Rob- 
bers — doubtful. — Reasons for revisiting Mexico. — The Battle at the 
Mountain of Crosses. — A peculiar Variety of the Cactus. — Three Men 
gibbeted for robbing a Bishop. — A Court upon Horseback. — The re- 
treat of Cortez to Otumba. — A venerable Cypress Grove. — Unexpect- 
edly comfortable Quai-ters. — An English Dinner atTezcuco. — Pleas- 
ures unknown to the Kings of Tezcuco. — Relics of Tezcuco. — The 
Appearance of the Virgin Mary at Tezcuco. — The Causeways of 
Mexico 196 

CHAPTER XTX. 

The Streets of Tacuba. — The Spaniards and the Indian Women. — The 
Retreat of Cortez. — The Aqueducts of Mexico. — The English and 
American Burying-grounds. — The Protestant President. — The rival 
Virgins. — An Image out of Favor. — The Aztecs and the Span- 
iards 208 

CHAPTER XX. 

The Paseo at Evening. — Ride to Chapultepec. — The old Cypresses of 
Chapultepec. — The Capture of Chapultepec. — Molina del Rey. — 



CONTENTS. XI 

Tacubaya. — Don Manuel Escandon. — The Tobacco Monopoly. — The 
Palace of Escandon. — The "Desierto." — Hermits. — Monks in the 
Conflict with Satan. — Our Lady of Carmel Page 219 

CHAPTER XXI. 

Walk to Guadalupe. — Our Embassador kneeling to the Host. — An Em- 
bassador with, and one without Lace. — Eirst sight of Santa Anna. — 
Indian Dance in Church. — Juan Diego not Saint Thomas. — The Mir- 
acle proved at Rome. — The Story of Juan Diego. — The holy Well of 
Guadalupe. — The Temple of the Virgin. — Public Worship interdict- 
ed by the Archbishop. — Refuses to revoke his Interdict. — He fled to 
Guadalupe and took Sanctuary. — Refused to leave the Altar. — The 
Arrest at the Altar.. 229 

CHAPTER XXII. 

The old Indian City of Mexico. — The Mosques. — Probable Extent of 
Civilization. — Aztecs acquired Arts of the Toltecs. — Toltec Civiliza- 
tion, ancient and original. — The Pyramid of Papantla. — The Plun- 
der of Civilization. — Mexico as described by Corte'z. — Montezuma's 
Court. — The eight Months that Cortez held Montezuma. — What hap- 
pened for the next ten Months. — The Siege of Mexico by Cortez. — 
Aztecs conquered by Eamine and Thirst. — Heroes on Paper and 
Victories without Bloodshed. — Cortez and Morgan 242 

CHAPTER XXIII. 

The new City of Mexico. — The Discoveries of Gold. — Ruins at Mexi- 
co. — The Monks, and what Cortez gained by his Piety. — The City of 
Mexico again rebuilt. — The City under Ravillagigedo. — The Nation- 
al Palace. — The Cathedral. — A whole Museum turned Saints. — All 
kneel together. — The San Carlos Academy of Arts. — Reign of Car- 
los III.— The Mineria 259 

CHAPTER XXIV. 

The National Museum. — Marianna and Cortez. — The small Value of 
this Collection. — The Botanic Garden. — The Market of Santa Anna. 
— The Acordada Prison. — The unfortunate Prisoner. — The Causes 
of that Night of Terror.— The Sacking of the City.— The Parian.— 
The Causes of the Ruin of the Parian. — Change in the Standard of 
Color.— The Ashes of Corte'z 271 

CHAPTER XXV. 

The Priests gainers by the Independence. — Improved Condition of the 
Peons. — Mexican Mechanics. — The Oppression they suffer. — Low 
state of the Mechanic Arts. — The Story of the Portress. — Charity 
of the Poor. — The Whites not superior to Meztizos. — License and 
Woman's Rights at Mexico. — The probable Future of Mexico. — Mor- 



Xll CONTENTS. 

monism impending over Mexico. — Mormonism and Mohammedan- 
ism Page 280 

CHAPTEE XXVI. 

The Plaza of the Inquisition. — The two Modes of human Sacrifice, the 
Aztec and the Spanish. — Threefold Power of the Inquisition. — Visit 
to the House of the Inquisition. — The Prison and Place of Torture. 
— The Story of William Lamport. — The little and the big Auto da 
Fe. — The Inquisition the real Goverment. — Ruin of Spanish Nation- 
ality. — The political Uses of the Inquisition. — Political Causes of 
the Bigotry of Philip II. — His eldest Son dies mysteriously. — The 
Dominion of Priests continues till the French Invasion 292 

CHAPTER XXVII. 

Miracles and Earthquakes. — The Saints in Times of Ignorance. — The 
Eruption of Jorullo. — The Curse of the Capuchins. — The Conse- 
quences of the Curse. — The unfulfilled Curse. — The Population of 
the Republic— Depopulation from 1810 to 1840.— The Mixture of 
Whites and Indians not prolific. — The pure Indians. — The Mez- 
tizos. — The White Population. — Negroes and Zambos. — The Jew 
and the Law of Generation. — The same Law applies to Cattle. — It 
governs the Generation of Plants. — Intemperance and Generation. 
— Meztizo Plants short-lived. — Mexico can not be resuscitated. — She 
can not recover her Northern Provinces 304 

CHAPTER XXVIH. 

The Church of Mexico. — Its present Condition and Power. — The Num- 
ber of the " Religios." — The Wealth of the Church.— The Money- 
power of the Church. — The Power of Assassination. — Educating the 
People robs the Priest. — Making and adoring Images. — The Prog- 
ress downward 319 

CHAPTER XXIX. 

Causes that have diminished the Religios. — The Provincials and Supe- 
riors of Convents. — The perfect Organization. — The Monks. — San 
Franciscans. — Dominicans. — Carmelites. — The well-reputed Ordei's. 
— The Jesuits. — The Nuns. — How Novices are procured. — Contrast- 
ed with a Quaker Prison. — The poor deluded Nun. — A good old 
Quaker Woman not a Saint. — Protestantism felt in Mexico 330 

CHAPTER XXX. 

The Necessity of large Capitals in Mexico. — The Finances and Reve- 
nue. — The impoverished Creditors of the State. — Princely Wealth 
of Individuals 348 



CONTENTS. Xlll 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Visit to Pachuca and Real del Monte. — Otumba and Tulanzingo. — The 
grand Canal of Huehuetoca. — The Silver Mines of Pachuca. — Hakal 
Silver Mines. — Real del Monte Mines. — The Anglo-Mexican Mining 
Fever. — My Equipment to descend a Mine. — The great Steam-pump. 
— Descending the great Shaft. — Galleries and Veins of Ore. — Among 
the Miners one thousand Eeet under Ground. — The Barrel Process 
of refining Silver. — Another refining Establishment Page 352 

CHAPTER XXXII. 

A Visit to the Refining-mills. — The Falls and basaltic Columns of Reg- 
la. — How a Title is acquired to Silver Mines. — The Story of Peter 
Terreros, Count of Regla. — The most successful of Miners. — Silver 
obtained by fusing the Ore. — Silver "benefited" upon the Patio. — 
The Tester of the Patio. — The chemical Processes employed. — The 
Heirs of the Count of Regla. — The Ruin caused by Civil War. — The 
History of the English Company 362 

CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Toluca. — Queretaro, Guanajuato, and Zacatecas. — Fresnillo. — "Ro- 
mancing." — A lucky Priest. — San Luis Potosi. — The Valenciana at 
Guanajuato. — Under-mining. — A Name of Blasphemy. — The Los 
Rayas. — Immense Sums taken from Los Rayas. — Warlike Indians in 
Zacatecas 372 

CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Sonora and Sonora Land Speculators seeking Annexation. — Sonora 
and its Attractions. — The Abundance and Purity of Silver in Sono- 
ra. — Silver found in large Masses. — The Jesus Maria, Refugio, and 
Eulalia Mines. — A Creation of Silver at Arizpa. — The Pacific Rail- 
road. — Sonora now valueless for want of personal Security. — The 
Hopes of replenishing the Spanish Finances from Sonora blasted by 
War.— Report of the Mineria. — Sonora. — Chihuahua 382 



APPENDIX. 

A. Mineria Report on the Mineral Riches of Sonora 391 

B. Report on the Mineral Riches of Chihuahua 398 

C. Report on the Mineral Riches of Coahuila 400 

D. Report on the Mineral Riches of Lower California 402 

E. The Remains of Cortez 405 



MEXICO AID ITS RELIGION. 



CHAPTER I. 



Arrival at Vera Cruz. — Its appearance from the Steamer. — Getting 
Ashore. — Within the City. — Throwing Stones at an Image. — An- 
tiquity of Vera Cruz. — Its Commerce. — The great Norther of 1852. 
— A little Steamer rides out the Tempest. — The Vomito, or Yellow 
Fever. — Ravages of the Vomito. — The Vomito brought from Africa 
in Slave-ships. — A curious old Book. — Our Monk arrives at Vera 
Cruz, and what befalls him there. — Life in a Convent. — A nice 
young Prior. — Our Monk finds himself in another World. 

It was a stormy evening in the month, of November, 
1853, when the noble steamship Texas cast anchor in 
the open roadstead of Vera Cruz, under the lee of the 
low island on which stands the famous fortress of San 
Juan de Ulua. Hard by lay a British vessel ready to 
steam out into the teeth of the storm, as soon as the offi- 
cers should receive from us a budget of newspapers. 
We were too late to obtain a permit to land that even- 
ing, so that we lay tossing at our anchors all night, and 
until the sun and the shore-boats appeared together on 
the morning following. 

The finest view of Vera Cruz is from the harbor ; and 
the best time to look upon it is when a bright sun, just 
risen above a watery horizon, is reflected back from the 
antiquated domes and houses, which are visible above the 
old massive city wall. 

Soon we were in one of the canoes alongside, and 



16 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

were quickly transported to the mole, on which we land- 
ed, among bales of cotton and bundles of freight that 
encumbered it. The iron gate of the city was now 
opened, and we passed through it, mixed up in the 
crowd of bare-footed "cargadores" or porters, who were 
carrying upon their backs bales of cotton, and deposit- 
ing them in various piles in front of the custom-house. 
How quietly and quickly these cargadores do their work ! 
and what great power of muscle they have acquired by 
long application at this laborious calling ! 

What a contrast does this city present to New Or- 
leans, which we had left only four days before ! Instead 
of the noise and bustle of a commercial emporium, all 
here is as quiet and as cleanly as a church-yard. Even 
the chiming of bells for the dying and the dead, which 
so incessantly disturbs the living by night and day in 
the season of the "vomito" or yellow fever, is no longer 
heard, for it is the healthy season — the season of 
"Northers." The only noise is the little bells upon the 
necks of the donkeys, that are carrying about kegs of 
water for family use. The chain-gang have completed 
their morning task of cleansing the streets and gutters, 
and as they are led away to their breakfast, a clank 
now and then of their chain reminds the traveler that 
crime has been as busy here as in more bustling cities. 
Morning mass is over, and bonnetless women of low 
and high degree are returning to their homes ; some 
wearing mantillas of satin, black and shining as their 
raven hair, which are pinned by a jeweled pin upon the 
top of their heads ; others, more modern in their tastes, 
sport India shawls ; while the common class still cling 
to the "rebosa," which they so ingeniously twirl around 
their heads and chests as to include in its narrow folds 
their arms, and all above the waist except the face. 
Priests appear in black gowns, and fur hats with such 



VEKA CKUZ. 



17 




VERA CRUZ. 



ample brims that they lap and are fastened together upon 
the top of their heads. The armed patrol, in dirty cotton 
uniforms, and soldiers in broadcloth, are returning from 
morning muster ; for in this hot climate the burden of the 
day's duties is discharged before breakfast. Under the 
arches (portales), and in the open market-place, men and 
women are driving a brisk trade, in the most quiet 
way, in meats, and vegetables, and huxter's wares. 
Nature has denied to the butcher of hot climates the 
privilege of salting meat, but he makes amends for this 
defect by cutting his tough beef into strips, which he 
rubs over with salt, and offers to sell to you by the 
yard. Vera Cruz is now as venerable a looking town 
as when I was here before, although the houses, and 
the plastered walls, and tops of the stone churches seem 
to have had a new coating of Spanish white within a 
few months. But the malaria from the swamps in the 
time of the vomito, or the salt atmosphere driven upon 
it by the Northers, soon replaces the familiar dingy hue. 
The battered face of the stone image, at the side of the 



18 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

deserted church, has received a few more bruises since 
I was last here ; for the marriageable young misses still 
most religiously believe that a stone thrown by a fair 
hand that shall hit the image full in the face, will ob- 
tain for the thrower a husband, and an advantageous 
settlement for life. This is a small city, or the poor 
image could not have endured this kind of bruising for 
two hundred years. 

The first Spaniard that landed here was Grijalva,* in 
1518, in a trading expedition fitted out by Valasquez, 
Governor of Cuba. He was so successful in his traffic 
with the natives, as to obtain, in exchange for a few 
trinkets, $14,000 worth of gold dust. His success so 
encouraged Yalasquez, that he fitted out a much larger 
expedition the following year, the command of which he 
gave to Hernando Cortez, of whom we shall have occa- 
sion to speak more at large hereafter. Cortez, at first, 
landed on the island of Ulua, in front of the site of the 
present city. But when he commenced his conquest he 
transported his boats to the mouth of the river Antigua, 
where he founded his intended city, a little way below 
the place where the national bridge now stands, and 
gave it the name of the Rich City of the True Cross 
(Villa Rica de Vera Cruz) ; and there it was where he 
destroyed his little vessels. Ninety years after the con- 
quest of Mexico, the Marquis De Monterey removed the 
port back to Ulua, and founded the present city of Vera 
Cruz. It was at first built of wood, but having been 
several times burned down, it was at length built of its 
present material — a porous stone full of animal remains, 
obtained from the bottom of the harbor. This stone, 
when laid in and covered over with cement, forms a very 
durable building-material. The castle, which stands 
upon the island of Ulua, is now fast going to decay. 
* Apuntes Historicos de Vera Cruz, p. 102. 



COMMERCE OF VERA CEUZ. 19 

As a fortification it is no longer of great value,* although 
it is computed that more than $16,000,000 was expend- 
ed in its erection. In fact, its only present practical 
advantage is derived from the light-house which stands 
upon one of its towers. 

This town, although it has been the terror of sea- 
faring men for the last three hundred years, has, for a 
like period of time, enjoyed an enviable commerce. 
Nearly three-fourths of all the silver that, has been 
shipped to Europe from America during that long pe- 
riod has been sent from this port, besides the other 
productions of the country, such as cochineal, vanilla, 
wood of Tobasco, sarsaparilla, and jalap. To all this 
we must add that all the trade of Spain with Japan, 
China, and the Philipine Islands, was carried across 
Mexico from Acapulco, on the Pacific, to be shipped 
from Yera Cruz to Spain. During the long period we 
have named, this was the only port on the Atlantic side 
where foreign commerce was allowed ; and this was 
restricted to Spain alone, and to a single fleet of mer- 
chant ships that came and went annually, until about 
fifty years before the Mexican independence, when free 
commerce was allowed with all the Spanish world. 
From a history of the commerce of Vera Cruz, just pub- 
lished at Mexico, I find that its annual average did not 
vary greatly from $12,000,000 importations against 
$18,000,000 exportations. The extra $6,000,000 being 
about the annual average of the royal revenue derived 
from New Spain, as this country was then called. Sil- 
ver constituted the bulk of this $18,000,000, both in 
weight and in value. During the last fifty years of 
Spanish dominion, this commerce, extended, as we have 
said, to all Spanish possessions, was monopolized by a 

* Esterior Comercio de Mexico. M. M. Lerdo de Tegido. Mex- 
ico, 1853. 



20 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

company of merchants styled the Consulado of Vera 
Cruz. Under the management of this company it aver- 
aged as high as $22,000,000. The revolution broke up 
this monopoly, and almost annihilated the commerce of 
this port, but it rapidly revived after the Spaniards were 
driven out of the castle, and from this time it has gone 
on increasing, until now it amounts to $26,000,000 ; 
the imports and exports being equal, as there is now no 
King's revenue. This commerce is now carried on prin- 
cipally with the United States, since the establishment 
of a line of steamers to New Orleans. The most im- 
portant article of importation is raw cotton, for the sup- 
ply of the great manufactories in the interior of Mexico. 
The silver goes principally to England, and is drawn 
again in favor of the cotton purchaser. There is also a 
large import trade in agricultural implements, steam- 
machinery for the sugar-mills and the silver mines, be- 
sides heavy importation of silks and wines from France 
and Spain. With this hasty notice we are compelled 
to quit a subject which is the theme of a most interest- 
ing volume. 

The hrst time I saw Yera Cruz was during the great 
Norther of 1852. I was then returning homeward from 
the city of Mexico. A fierce Norther was blowing, and 
the harbor was filled with shipping that could not bear 
up against such a tornado. I stood among the anxious 
multitude, watching the symptoms of the rising storm. 
We looked intently at the heavens as they gathered 
blackness, and saw far off toward the horizon the clouds 
and the waves mingling together into one great vapor- 
ous mass. Now and then we were tantalized by brief 
intervals of bright skies ; but they were again quickly 
overcast and shrouded in by more intense darkness, 
while the temperature fell to a degree of chilliness un- 
usual in this latitude. The howling of the wind was 



A NORTHER. 21 

terrific. Where we stood we were near enough to see, 
or at least to catch glimpses of what was taking place 
on board the shipping. All extra anchors that could be 
got out were soon thrown into the sea. But to little 
purpose ; for a coral bottom is but a poor holding-ground 
in a Norther. One after another the vessels began to 
drag toward the shore ; and even the castle itself seemed 
at times as though it would be torn from its rocky 
foundations and dashed upon the town, so violent was 
the tempest. The terror of those on land was hardly 
describable as they saw the shipping dragging around 
toward apparent destruction to both vessels and crews. 
Now and then a vessel held a little by some new obsta- 
cle that the anchor had caught hold of, but soon the 
resistance gave way, and then it moved on again, ap- 
proaching the shore, whither all now were tending, ex- 
cept a few that occupied a good holding-ground in the 
lee of the castle and island. All did not drag at once, 
or drag together ; but one by one their power of endur- 
ance gave out, and one by one they came dragging on, 
when they had no longer any help, and little hope, if 
the storm continued. " It can not last long," the spec- 
tators would mutter, rather in hope than expectation, for 
the only chance for the safety of the vessels was in the 
lulling of the tempest. Yet it did continue against the 
constant predictions of all, and momentarily increased 
in violence. Hope seemed to give way to despair as 
vessel after vessel approached the land ; and as they 
were dashed into pieces men held their breath, while 
the hardy seamen were struggling in the waves toward 
the beach. One staunch vessel, without cargo, was car- 
ried broadside on, and her crew leaped out of her, and 
ran off in safety. Many single shipwrecks have caused 
greater destruction of property, and immensely greater 
loss of life ; but here was the individual struggle of each 



22 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

separate mariner, made in the very sight of those who 
could render no assistance, but must stand idle specta- 
tors. Here strong swimmers were rendered powerless 
by the tempest, and were perishing from exhaustion in 
vain efforts to swim ashore. 

From this scene of disaster we turned to look back 
upon a more equal contest going on between two of the 
elements : a small steamer — a little crazy thing, it 
seemed, almost ready to be blown to pieces ; but it was 
gallantly facing the tempest, and riding out bravely 
against the combined force of wind and waves. But 
she mounted the waves, one after another, without any 
difficulty, though held by but a single anchor, as the 
strain on her cable was eased away by the action of her 
paddle-wheels, which were kept in motion by an engine 
of the smallest class ever put into a river boat. This 
was said to be the most violent Norther that had visited 
Yera Cruz in a century. It destroyed sixteen vessels, 
and caused the loss of thirteen lives ; and yet so small 
an amount of steam-power was fully able to bear up 
against the dreaded fury of a Norther, and to insure the 
safety of the vessel. 

Yera Cruz, like almost every other Spanish American 
seaport town, has its traditional tales of the horrors 
committed by the buccaneers, or filibusters. The his- 
tory of the buccaneers, their origin, their fearful exploits 
of blood, the terror that their name even now inspires 
in the minds of all Spanish Americans, are too well 
known to demand a repetition here, though we may give 
the substance of their story, by saying that they had 
their origin in a laudable effort to avenge the gross 
wrongs inflicted by the Spaniards upon the honest tra- 
ders of other nations, while trafficking with the native 
inhabitants of America, within the region which the 
Pope, as the representative of the Almighty, had be- 



THE BUCCANEEKS. 23 

stowed upon the King of Spain, to conquer and subdue 
for the benefit of the Church. Elizabeth of England 
raised the question of the validity of the title of the King 
of Spain derived from so questionable a source, and in- 
sisted that he had no rights in America beyond those 
acquired by discovery, followed up -by possession. But 
the King of Spain was too good a Catholic to have his 
right called in question, and when a heretic ship was 
caught among the West Indies, the avarice of priests 
and officials, and their holy horror at the approach of 
heresy to these regions, were exhibited in their deal- 
ings with the cargo and the unhappy crew. The in- 
human treatment that the Spaniards inflicted upon hon- 
est traders aroused men to reprisals ; and all ships ven- 
turing into these seas went fully armed. Private war 
was the natural consequence of Spanish cruelty and in- 
justice ; and the superior prowess of the Dutch and En- 
glish soon made sad havoc with the plunder which the 
Spaniards had wrung from the natives for a hundred 
years and more. 

The filibusters finally degenerated into pirates and 
robbers, and the treasure ships (" galleons") of Spain, 
and the towns upon her American coasts, were the vic- 
tims of their depredations. The fury of the buccaneers 
was mainly directed against the monks, and when they 
sacked a town, they never failed to pay an especial vis- 
itation to the convents. When Yera Cruz was sacked 
they showed their contempt for the clergy by compelling 
the monks and nuns to carry the plunder of the town 
to their private boats ; thereby grieving these " holy 
men" most of all, if we may believe the old chronicles, 
because they could have no share in the rich plunder 
loaded upon their own backs. 

The second day after our arrival in Yera Cruz a fel- 
low-passenger, who had been sick all the voyage, died 



24 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

of the yellow fever, which he had contracted at New 
Orleans, or on the Mississippi ; which was probably 
the first time that a person ever died in Vera Cruz of 
vomito that had been contracted in the United States. 

This is a fitting place to speak of this disease and of 
its ravages, which we witnessed before leaving New Or- 
leans. It was the time for the frosts to make their ap- 
pearance when I left New York, and with the expecta- 
tion of seeing the ground covered with this antidote to 
the fever, crowds were returning from the north, though 
the marks of the pestilence were still visible along our 
route. It had followed the main stream of travel far 
northward, and now, as we ventured upon its track, it 
seemed like traversing the valley of the shadow of death. 
Terror had committed greater ravages than the pesti- 
lence; the villages and cities on our route were half 
deserted; stagnation was visible in all commercial 
places ; and when we reached New Orleans this strange 
state of things was doubly intensified: it looked more 
like a city of the dead, or a city depopulated, than the 
emporium of the Mississippi valley. A stranger might 
have supposed that a great funeral service had just been 
performed, in which all of the inhabitants remaining in 
town had acted the part of mourners. The city itself 
had been so thoroughly cleansed, that it might challenge 
comparison with one of the most cleanly villages of 
Holland, while its footways seemed almost too pure 
to be trod upon. Nothing appears half so gloomy as 
such a place when deserted of its principal inhabit- 
ants. 

This disease was unknown in America until the open- 
ing of the African slave-trade. It is an African disease, 
intensified and aggravated by the rottenness and filthy 
habits of the human cargoes that brought it to America. 
It was entirely unknown at Vera Cruz until brought 



THE VOMITO. 25 

there in the slave-ship of 1699.* In like manner it 
was carried to all the West India islands. When the 
negro insurrection in San Domingo drove the white pop- 
ulation into exile, the disease was carried by the immi- 
grants to all the cities of the United States, and even to 
the most healthy localities in the interior of Massachu- 
setts. Old people still remember when New York was 
so completely deserted that its principal streets were 
boarded up, and watchmen went their rounds of silent 
streets by day as well as by night. The fever of the 
present year can be traced directly to this accursed traf- 
fic. Slaves had been smuggled into Bio Janeiro, who 
brought the disease in its most virulent form from 
Africa. In that city it was carrying its hundreds to 
the grave, when a vessel cleared for New Orleans, hav- 
ing the disease on board. This vessel disseminated it 
in the upper wards of the city, while at the same time 
there arrived from Cuba another vessel which, from a 
like cause, had caught the vomito at Havana, and 
from this second vessel the disease was disseminated 
in the lower wards of New Orleans, It was the meet- 
ing of these two independent currents of the fever in 
the centre of the city, on Canal Street, that caused 
that fatal day on which three hundred victims went to 
their long homes. Such were the fruits of this offspring 
of an inhuman trade in a single city, in a single day. 

I learn from the preface of a book in the Spanish lan- 
guage, which I purchased at Mexico, entitled " The 
Voyages of Thomas Page," that a Dominican monk of 
that name, the brother of the Koyalist Governor of 
Oxford under Charles I., was smuggled into Mexico by 
his Dominican brethren, against the King's order, which 
prohibited the entry of Englishmen into that country. 
As a missionary monk he resided in Mexico, or New 
* Apuntes Historicos de Vera Cruz, p. 129. 

B 



26 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

Spain, as it was then called, eighteen years. On his 
return to England he published an account of the coun- 
try which he visited, under the title of "A Survey 
of the West Indies." This being the first and last 
book ever written by a resident of New Spain that had 
not been submitted to the most rigid censorship by 
the Inquisition, it produced so profound a sensation, 
that, by order of the great Colbert, French Minister of 
State, it was expurgated and translated into French by 
an Irish Catholic of the name of O'Neil. From this 
expurgated French edition the Spanish copy now be- 
fore me was translated. From this Spanish edition I 
had made the several translations that are found in this, 
and the following chapters. I have since found a black 
letter popy of the original, printed at London, in 1677 ; 
but I have concluded to use the translations, as furnish- 
ing a more official character to the picture therein drawn 
of the grossly immoral state of the clergy, and of the 
religious orders. As it is from actual observation, and 
has the sanction of the censorship, it must be of more 
value to my readers than any account of personal ob- 
servations that I might write. This is my apology 
for copying the most interesting portions of a long for- 
gotten book. 

"When we came to land," says our author, "we saw 
all the inhabitants of the city (Vera Cruz) had congre- 
gated in the Plaza (public square) to receive us. The 
communities of monks were also there, each one pre- 
ceded by a large crucifix. The Dominicans, the San 
Franciscans, the Mercedarios, and the Jesuits, in order 
to conduct the Yirey (the Viceroy) of Mexico as far as 
the Cathedral. The Jesuits and friars from the ships 
leaped upon the shore more expeditiously than did the 
Virey, the Marquis Seralvo, and his wife. Many of 
them (the monks) on stepping on shore kissed it, con- 



FKIAK PAGE. 27 

sidering that it was a holy cause that brought them 
here — the conversion of the Indians, who had before 
adored and sacrificed to demons ; others kneeled down 
and gave thanks to the Virgin Mary and other saints 
of their devotion, and then all the monks hastened to 
incorporate themselves with their respective orders in 
the place in which they severally stood. The proces- 
sion, as soon as formed, directed itself to the Cathedral, 
where the consecrated wafer* was exposed upon the high 

altar, and to which all kneeled as they entered 

The services ended, the Yirey was conducted to his 
lodgings by the first Alcalde, the magistrates of the town, 
and judges, who had descended from the capitol to re- 
ceive him, besides the soldiers of the garrison and the 
ships. Those of the religious orders who had just ar- 
rived were conducted to their respective convents, cross- 
es, as before, being carried at the head of each com- 
munity. Friar John presented (us) his missionaries to 
the Prior of the Convent of San Domingo, who received 
us kindly, and directed sweetmeats to be given to us, 
and also there was given to each of us a cup of that In- 
dian beverage which the Indians call chocolate. 

" This first little act of kindness was only a prelude 
to a greater one. That is to say, it was the introduc- 
tion to a sumptuous dinner, composed of flesh and fish 
of every description, in which there was no lack of tur- 
keys and capons. All set out with the intent of mani- 
festing to us the abundance of the country, and not for 
the purpose of worldly ostentation. 

" The Prior of Vera Cruz was neither old nor severe, 
as the men selected to govern communities of youthful 
religious are accustomed to be. On the contrary, he 
was in the flower of his age, and had all the manner of 

* Called, in the Spanish translation, " The most holy Sacrament ;" 
but in the English original, " The bread God." 



28 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

a joyful and diverting youth. His fathership, as they 
told us, had acquired the priory by means of a gift of 
a thousand ducats, which he had sent to the Father 
Provincial. After dinner he invited some of us to visit 
his cell, and there it was we came to know the levity 
of his life. It exhibited little of the appearance of a 
life of penance and self-mortification. We expected to 
find in the habitation of a prelate of such an establish- 
ment a most magnificent library, which would furnish 
an index of his learning and of his taste for letters. But 
we saw nothing more than a dozen old books lying in a 
corner, and covered with dust and cobwebs, as if they 
had hid themselves for shame at the neglect with which 
the treasures they contained had been treated, and that 
a guitar should be preferred to them. 

" The cell of the Prior was richly tapestried and 
adorned with feathers of birds of Michoacan ; the walls 
were hung with various pictures of merit ; rich rugs of 
silk covered the tables ; porcelain of China filled the 
cupboards and sideboards ; and there were vases and 
bowls containing preserved fruits and most delicate 
sweetmeats. Our enthusiastic companions did not fail 
to be scandalized at such an exhibition, which they 
looked upon as a manifestation of worldly vanity, so 
foreign to the poverty of a begging friar. But those 
among us that had sailed from Spain with the intent 
of living at their ease, and of enjoying the pleasures 
which riches would produce, exulted at the sight of such 
great opulence, and they desired to establish themselves 
in a country where they could so quickly win fortunes 
so secure and abundant.* The holy Prior talked to us 
only of his ancestry, of his good parts, of the influence 
which he had with the Father Provincial, of the love 

* These missionary monks were on their way to Manilla and the 
Spanish East Indies by the road across Mexico. 



A NICE YOUNG PEIOE. 29 

which the principal ladies and the wives of the richest 
merchants manifested to him, of his beautiful voice, of 
his consummate skill in music. In fact, that we might 
not doubt him in this last particular, he took the guitar 
and sung a sonnet which he had composed to a certain 
Amaryllis. This was a new scandal to our newly-ar- 
rived religious, which afflicted some of them to see such 
libertinage in a prelate, who ought, on the contrary, to 
have set an example of penance and self-mortification, 
and should shine like a mirror in his conduct and words. 
"When we had satiated our ears with the delicacy of 
music, our eyes with the beauty of such rich stuffs of 
cotton, of silk, and of feathers, then our reverend Prior 
directed us to take from his dispensaries a prodigious 
quantity of every species of dainties to allure the taste 
or satisfy the appetite. Truly we seemed in another 
world, by being transported from Europe to America. 
Our senses had been changed from what they had been 
the night and day before, while listening to the hoarse 
sounds of the mariners, when the abyss of the sea was 
at our feet, and when we drank fetid water, and inhaled 
the stench of pitch. In the Prior's cell of the Convent 
of Vera Cruz, we listened to a melodious voice accom- 
panied with an harmonious instrument, we saw treas- 
ures and riches, we ate exquisite confectioneries, we 
breathed amber and musk, with which he had perfumed 
his sirups and conserves. O, that delicious Prior ! " 



CHAPTER II. 

An historical Sketch. — Truth seldom spoken of Santa Anna. — Santa 
Anna's early Life. — Causes of the Revolution. — The Virgin Mary's 
Approval of King Ferdinand. — The Inquisition imprisons the Vice- 
King. — Santa Anna enters the King's Army. — The plan of Iguala. 
— The War of the two Virgins. — Santa Anna pronounces for Inde- 
pendence. 

Before commencing our journey to the interior, we 
must break the thread of our narrative by a brief bio- 
graphical sketch: for this town is the birth-place, and 
here began the public career of that man whose life has 
become the history of his country. With him the 
Mexican Republic began, and with him it has been 
terminated. In 1822 he was first to proclaim a Repub- 
lic in the Plaza of Yera Cruz ; and when I stood in the 
Plaza of the city of Mexico, in the winter of 1854, I 
heard him proclaimed absolute ruler of a state which 
had already ceased to be a Republic. This was not the 
first time that he had been raised to absolute authority 
in Mexico, but the third time that this had occurred in 
his checkered career — a career that resembles more the 
vicissitudes in the life of a hero of Spanish romance than 
the memoirs of a living politician. 

Santa Anna is a man of whom the truth has seldom 
been spoken ; for no man can raise himself from a hum- 
ble position to be the embodiment of all the powers of 
the state without creating a host of enemies ; nor can 
a man be long in possession of absolute authority with- 
out raising up a tribe of flatterers. To the one, he is 
every thing that is shocking to humanity ; while to the 



SANTA ANNA. 31 

other he is the perfection of all the moral qualities. 
This scurrilous manner in which all political discussions 
are carried on in Mexico, has always furnished a ready 
apology for the suppression of liberty of speech, and for 
the enforcement of the Mexican law of ostracism in turn 
by every party in power. 

As we Americans have nothing to hope from his 
friendship, and nothing to fear from the displeasure of 
Santa Anna, we are able to take a correct view of his 
character from the records, and to affirm that he is 
neither a saint, as represented by one party, nor a mon- 
ster, as represented by the other ; and as greatness is a 
comparative term, and goodness is often used in a com- 
parative sense, we may also add that he is the first of 
Mexican statesmen, and as good as the best of his rivals. 
He has suffered unnumbered and overwhelming defeats, 
which have so exhibited his recuperative talents as to 
attract the admiration of foreigners. Other aspirants 
have risen to popular favor, and then fallen, one after the 
other, and have disappeared. But Santa Anna's falls 
have ever been a prelude to his rising again to a greater 
elevation ; and there is no point of elevation to which 
he has risen from which he has not been ignominiously 
hurled. He is a politician whose course reminds us of 
a skillful swimmer in the breakers ; half the time he 
rides the waves and half the time he is submerged, yet 
never sinks so deep but that he rises again to the sur- 
face. When Santa Anna is in authority the fickle 
multitude cry out against him, and when he is in exile 
no suffering innocent can compare with him ; and the 
books that at such times sell best in Mexico are those 
that vindicate his past career. Of such a man some- 
thing must be said, and to render that something intel- 
ligible, a brief account of the social and political changes 
of his times must be rendered. 



32 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

Santa Anna was born at Vera Cruz, in the year 1796, 
in the most prosperous era of the colonial government 
of the vice-kingdom of New Spain, while Kavillagi- 
gedo was Virey. The new and liberal code, regulating 
mines and mining, was yielding its legitimate fruits in 
the immensely increased production of silver and gold, 
while the newly-granted privilege of unrestricted trade 
with Spain and her other colonies was followed by con- 
siderable shipments of grain from the table-lands of 
Mexico to the West India Islands. The profound peace 
that had reigned uninterruptedly for two hundred and 
seventy-five years was still unbroken. Not a word 
of disloyalty was breathed ; while the Inquisition of 
Mexico watched with the utmost care for the least ap- 
pearance of rebellion against God or the king. Such 
was the religious and political stagnation at the time 
Santa Anna was born ; and so it continued for the first 
twelve years of his life. But his youth was not to be 
passed in a period of national repose. 

It was the year 1808 that the news arrived in Mexico 
of the imprisonment of Charles IV. and Ferdinand VII. , 
the dotard and simpleton who then disputed the Span- 
ish throne, and who had rendered themselves the laugh- 
ing stock of all Europe by going, each one in person, 
to advocate his side of a family quarrel before a common 
enemy, the French Emperor, by whom both had thus 
been caught like mice in a cage, and compelled to abdi- 
cate. At this news a feeling of indignation ran through 
the vice-kingdom, while all Europe laughed at the 
strange combination of knave and fool exhibited in the 
characters of the two Spanish kings. The people of 
New Spain saw in them only the guardians of the 
Church in the power of the infidels, and at once forgot 
the unnatural crimes of their two kings. They thought 
only of their piety, and with joy the news was carried 



THE MEXICAN EEVOLUTION. 33 

throughout New Spain, that one of their previous kings 
had consecrated his imprisonment to embroidering a pet- 
ticoat for the Virgin Mary ; and when this announcement 
was followed by another, a little more apocryphal, that 
the most holy image had, by a nod, signified her ac- 
ceptance of the present, there could no longer be a doubt 
of his title of Most Catholic King, which might from 
that time onward be interpreted Most Catholic Mantua- 
maker. The world might now laugh at him, and hold 
him up to ridicule. All its ridicule mattered nothing 
to the Mexicans. It made no difference to them. To 
revere the king and render him a blind obedience was 
at all times a part of their religion. Whether either of 
the two were fit to be kings was not a question for the 
people to determine ; and if the Virgin Mary had not 
nodded her approval, the solution of this question of 
competency would still be reserved for the tribunals of 
God and the Inquisition. It was sufficient for the peo- 
ple to know that both father and son had been com- 
pelled to abdicate, and that they no longer were kings 
of Spain, and that the brother of the French Emperor 
occupied the vacant throne, which the Inquisition had 
associated, in their superstition, with the throne of God 
itself. God and the king were inseparable words in 
the mouth of a citizen of New Spain, and he that dared 
to separate them was thought worthy of Inquisitorial 
fires. They owed the same reverence which the Aztecs 
rendered to their emperor before the conquest. 

Next to God and the king was the vice-king. Yet 
they had seen their beloved viceroy, Iturrigaray, deposed 
by a conspiracy of Spanish shop-keepers, which had 
organized itself in that focus of Mexican trade, the 
Parian. All this was bewildering to the nation. All 
New Spain was astonished to see a power sufficiently 
potent to arrest the vice-king emanate from such a 

B* 



34 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

quarter. And not only had they witnessed this, but 
they had also seen this same officer, whose person was 
so sacred in their eyes, cast into the prison of the In- 
quisition among "heretics, and accursed of God, and 
despised of Christian men," because he had not discrim- 
inated in favor of the Spanish-born in his appeal to the 
patriotism of the people. 

Before they had escaped from this bewildering of all 
their ideas of government, they were suddenly called 
upon to take sides in a war of races that had sprung up 
in determining the question, who constituted the people, 
among the divers races that composed the population 
of Mexico ? The Cortes of Spain had just proclaimed 
the sovereignty of the people. But who were the peo- 
ple ? The solution of this question excited one of the 
most cruel and envenomed wars on record. The hand- 
ful of whites who had been born in Spain, and who 
enjoyed a monopoly of the lucrative offices in Church 
and in State, as well as a monopoly in trade, claimed it 
as their exclusive privilege to be considered the people, 
and they it was who imprisoned the vice-king, because 
he appeared to have more enlarged views than them- 
selves. The Creoles, as those of pure white blood born 
in America are called, who were excluded from all 
places of honor or profit, held the balance of power, 
and it was doubtful for a long time to which side the 
Creole soldiers would incline. But they were not long 
in suspense; for when fired upon by an undisciplined 
rabble, rather than an army, of Indians, they returned 
the fire, and there, in sight of the city of Mexico, settled 
the character of a contest which was, from that time 
forward, to shake the whole social organization of the 
vice-kingdom — in which plantations were destroyed, and 
villages and cities sacked and burned, and the most un- 
heard-of cruelties practiced by one party or the other 



RISE OF SANTA ANNA. 35 

on the defenseless, until the final triumph of the Creole, 
or white troops, in the time of the viceroy, Apaduer, 
over the insurgents, composed chiefly of Indians* and 
those of mixed blood. 

"While this war was raging in all its fury, Santa 
Anna arrived at an age to choose an occupation for life ; 
and with the ardor of youth he entered the king's serv- 
ice as a Creole officer, a cadet in the Fijo de Vera 
Cruz. In this fratricidal war he soon distinguished 
himself by that activity in the performance of the duties 
of a subaltern which, in more mature years, distinguished 
him as a leader and a politician. He was at that time 
in the unhappy dilemma of every man born in Spanish 
America ; he was compelled to choose between two evils 
— either to join the king's cause, and fight for the Span- 
iards who oppressed his country, or to run the hazard 
of seeing re-enacted in Mexico the bloody tragedy of 
San Domingo, if the colored races should conquer in a 
contest with the Spaniards. A few Creoles had chosen 
the side of the insurgents ; but they were few ; as the 
Spanish cause could not have been sustained for a day, 
if it had not been for the want of confidence in the lead- 
ers of the insurrection. But it was not in contests with 
his own countrymen that Santa Anna first won dis- 
tinction; it was in a battle with the filibustering in- 
vaders while yet Mexico was a colony of Spain : it was 
in the bloody battle of the river Madina, in Texas, 
where an army of three thousand men (according to 
Mexican accounts), on their way to join the Mexican in- 
surgents, were totally routed by Aridondo. 

The zeal which Santa Anna continually exhibited in 
almost daily contests with guerillas outside of the walls 
of Yera Cruz, so long as the contest was confined to a 
war of races, soon won him distinction. But now he 
is called to play the part of a military politician ; for 



36 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

when the news arrived in Mexico of the new constitu- 
tional revolution of 1820 in Spain itself, all the higher 
classes of society in the vice-kingdom were in terror. 
Ten years of bloodshed and civil disorder had been the 
fruits to Mexico of the first revolution of Spain — an in- 
surrection that had not been effectually put down until 
Spain herself had returned to despotism, and now the 
newly-restored peace was threatened with a more bloody 
insurrection than the former, unless there was an entire 
separation of the two countries. Experience had fully 
demonstrated that the Spanish colonial system was com- 
patible only with Spanish despotism. All native-born 
races desired to be free from the political disorders con- 
sequent upon the military revolutions of Spain herself. 
In this desire they were joined by that class who then 
ruled over the consciences of all men in Mexico, the 
clergy ; for that powerful body preferred to sacrifice the 
allegiance they owed to the king, from whom they had 
received their preferments, rather than run the risk of 
losing their privileges. 

That which was the thought of all Mexicans capable 
of thinking, was not long in receiving a definite shape 
and form. The j?ro?iunciamiento of Colonel Iturbide, 
at the city of Iguala, on the 24th of February 1821, 
united all the conflicting elements of Mexican society ; 
for all could agree upon a plan that proposed a separa- 
tion from Spain, while it gave guarantees to property, to 
the army, and to the church. Men who had been edu- 
cated under the fatherly care of the Inquisition, had no 
idea of religious toleration ; toleration for heresy was no 
part of their creed ; nor had their long civil wars pro- 
duced that alienation from the priesthood which had 
arisen from this cause in the other Spanish American 
states. One reason for this was that the first insurrec- 
tion was headed by the parish priest, Hidalgo ; and be- 



THE PLAN OF IGUALA. 37 

cause the most prominent leaders in it were priests ; 
while the watchword of the insurgents was, " Viva Our 
Lady of Guadalupe!" who is the patron saint of the 
colored races of Mexico. The insurrection of Iguala 
was entirely distinct in its character from the popular 
insurrection of 1810 ; for that was an insurrection of the 
oppressed races against the despotism that was grinding 
them in the dust. It was a peasant war; but the cry 
of Iguala rose from the soldiers of the government. It 
was the first of that long list of military insurrections 
that have afflicted Mexico. It was an insurrection of 
the Creole supporters of the government, and rendered 
the government powerless at once. Colonel Iturbide 
had distinguished himself, as a Creole soldier, Toy his 
courage, and by the cruelty which he exercised toward 
the first insurgents. 

When an officer in the service of the king in the first 
insurrection obtained a victory, he went to make his 
offering, not at the shrine of the Virgin of Guadalupe, 
but at the shrine of the Virgin of Remedies, so that as 
long as the Spanish cause prospered, the shrine of Gua- 
dalupe remained in obscurity; but as soon, however, as 
Iturbide and the Creoles deserted the cause of the king 
and joined the national standard, the Lady of Guada- 
lupe was made the national patroness, and the order of 
Guadalupe was established as the first and only order 
of the empire, while Our Lady of Remedies sank into 
obscurity. This gave occasion to an unbelieving Mex- 
ican to remark that the revolution was a war between 
the Blessed Virgins, and that she of Guadalupe had tri- 
umphed over her that had taken shelter in the plant. 

As soon as the tidings of the plan of Iguala reached 
Vera Cruz, Santa Anna hastened to give in his ad- 
hesion to the cause now truly national, which guaran- 
teed equal rights to all under the united leadership of 



38 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

Iturbide and of General Guerrero, the only remaining 
Creole leader of the first insurrection still in arms. On 
the 18th day of March, 1821, he was the first to pro- 
claim the plan of Iguala in the Plaza of Yera Cruz. 
This promptness of Santa Anna in proclaiming the in- 
dependence determined many who were hesitating in 
dread of a bombardment from Spanish forces in the 
Castle of San Juan de Ulua; and this important step 
it was which first brought him prominently into notice. 
As a consequence of this political movement, Santa 
Anna was appointed second in command in Vera Cruz. 



/ 

CHAPTEE III. 

Incidents of Travel. — The Great Road to the Interior. — Mexican Dili- 
gences. — The Priest was the first Passenger robbed. — The National 
Bridge. — A Conducta of Silver. — Our Monk visits Old Vera Cruz. — 
They grant to the Indians Forty Years of Indulgence in return for 
their Hospitality. — The Artist among Robbers. — Mexican Scholars 
in the United States. — Encerro. 

A railroad eleven miles in length, crossing the mo- 
rass, connects Yera Cruz with the great National Road 
to the table-land of the interior. The coach in which 
the journey to Mexico is made is placed on a railroad 
track and pushed on before a crazy locomotive, while 
behind the engine is a long line of freight wagons. At 
every cow-path that crossed our track stood a flagman 
waving his little red flag to the train as it passed, ap- 
parently in burlesque imitation of a regular road. 

The famous National Bridge carries the National Road 
over the river Antigua, at the mouth of which, a little 
way below, Cortez built his Yera Cruz (Yilla Rica de 
Yera Cruz), and where he caused his vessels to be 
sunk before commencing his expedition to the interior. 
Little has ever been known in our country of that mag- 
nificent whole, of which this and other bridges of solid 
masonry are but parts. The National Road of Mexico 
was conceived and executed by a company of merchants 
known as the Consulado of Yera Cruz. It is about 
ninety miles in length, and cost $3, 000, 000. From Yera 
Cruz it runs northward, often within sight of the Gulf, 
till it nearly reaches the Gerro Gordo, where it turns 
inland, and passing upward through that celebrated 



40 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

gorge to Jalapa, a distance of sixty miles from Vera 
Cruz, and at an elevation of 4264 feet above the sea ; 
thence, for the remaining thirty miles, it is carried over 
the famous mountain, Perote, to the great table-land of 
Mexico. It is a work of extraordinary character for 
the period in which it was built, and the method of its 
construction ; and reminds the traveler of a Roman road 
of antiquity, though no Roman road ever passed over a 
mountain 10,000 feet in height. The ruin into which 
it has fallen in many places during the last thirty years 
of civil war, serves to keep up the illusion, though it 
falls far short of those ancient roads in the material of 
which it is constructed, being of small rough stones, 
covered over with a durable cement. 

The system of stage-coaches between Yera Cruz and 
Mexico is as nearly perfect as any system of traveling 
dependent on weather can be. Comfortable hotels are 
established at convenient distances along the road ; and 
if the passenger desires it, he can have endorsed upon 
his ticket a permission to tarry upon the road as long 
as he may desire. Six, and sometimes eight horses 
drag the coach along at a hazardous speed. Twice, out 
of three times that I have passed over this road, I have 
been overturned. Once, while riding on the top, a 
heavy iron axle broke like a pipe-stem, throwing me 
off upon the rough stones, with the additional misfor- 
tune of having a heavy Frenchman fall upon me. But 
no bones were broken, and I still live to tell the story. 

The neighborhood of the National Bridge is a favorite 
haunt of the knights of the road. Though very pious 
in their way, they have no scruples in relieving any 
priest who may fall into their hands of such worldly 
possessions as he happens to have about him. In fact, 
they seem to take a special delight in plundering these 
holy men, giving them the precedence in relieving their 



THE NATIONAL BRIDGE. 43 

wants. Out of respect to the cloth, they omit the cere- 
mony of searching, to which the other passengers are 
subjected ; nor do they compel him to lie down like the 
others. But with mock solemnity a robber approaches 
the sacred personage, and dropping on one knee, pre- 
sents his hat for alms, which the priest understands to 
be a reverential mode of demanding all the valuables 
that he carries about him : his reverence having been dis- 
posed of, the women are searched ; afterward the men, 
one by one, are ordered to rise up to undergo a like 
ceremony ; and, lastly, the baggage is ransacked, and 
then all are suffered to go on their way in peace, if no 
shots have been fired from the stage. In former times 
the robbers used to divide their plunder with the Virgin 
Mary, but now things are altered ; the robber takes 
all, and even visits the churches occasionally, not to 
worship, but for plunder. If two or three priests take 
passage in a single coach, people shake their heads and 
say, " That coach will certainly be robbed ;" and so it 
often happens. 

The stage ordinarily passes this bridge in the night, 
when there is no opportunity to look at the magnificent 
scenery around. I saw it once by daylight ; and long- 
shall I remember the impression produced. I lingered 
about the spot to the last moment that "Jim," or as 
he is here called " San Diego," the driver, would per- 
mit. We reluctantly took our places in the coach, and 
when the hostler let slip the rope that held the heads of 
the leaders, our eight wild horses dashed off at a furious 
rate over a roughly paved road, to the no small dis- 
turbance of the reflections which such a spot awakens. 

We tried to think of the stirring events that had 
here so often taken place in times of civil war, when 
Gomez practiced such cruelties in the name of liberty ; 
when robberies and murders were committed here in 



44 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

broad daylight ; when the frowning battery that crowns 
the cliff, stopped the passage of armies. But it was of 
no use to try to think ; the wheels would strike fire 
upon the boulders lying in the road, tumbling us about 
until all romance and recollection were pounded out 
of us. 

Gladly we halted at Plan del Rio to take a little 
chocolate and look at the ruins of a stone bridge blown 
up by gunpowder, while new horses were being brought 
out to drag us up the Cerro Gordo pass. 

Here we met a small body of soldiers conducting 
eight freight wagons that carried loads of coined silver, 
and were drawn by twelve horses each, on their way to 
the coast — a common sight to the people of these parts, 
as was evident from the indifference with which they 
regarded such cargoes of money ; yet it was calculated 
to make an American stare, though he had been accus- 
tomed to look upon treasures of California in her palm- 
iest days. But a few millions in silver make a most 
imposing show. 

Our monk, on his journey to this point, had kept 
along the shore, crossing the Antigua near its mouth, 
visiting old Vera Cruz. He thus describes what he 
there saw : 

" The first Indians whom we encountered in our jour- 
ney were at old Yera Cruz, which is on the sea-shore, 
where, as we have already said, the Spaniards first de- 
signed to establish themselves on undertaking the con- 
quest of the country, but which they had to abandon 
on account of the little protection it afforded against the 
north winds. Here we began to note the power which 
the clergy and friars have among the poor Indians ; how 
they rule them, and the respect and veneration which 
are paid them. The Prior of Vera Cruz having written, 
the morning of our departure, advertising them of the 



FRIAR PAGE AT VERA CRUZ. 45 

day of our arrival, he commanded them to come and 
receive us, and to serve us during our transit through 
their territory. The poor Indians obeyed with the 
greatest promptitude the orders of the Prior, and at a 
league from their village twenty of their principal men 
encountered us upon horseback, and handed a wreath 
of flowers to each one of us. Then they set out on 
their return in front of our caravan, and at a bow-shot 
distance, and in this manner we proceeded until we 
came up with others on foot, with trumpets and flutes, 
which were played very agreeably before our whole cav- 
alcade. Those who had come out were the employees 
of the churches and the chiefs of the fraternities, all of 
whom presented us a garland of flowers. Then fol- 
lowed others — the priests' assistants, acolitos, and the 
young people of the choir, who went singing a Te Deum 
laudamus, until we arrived at the market-place. There 
is always a Plaza in the midst of the village, and here 
it was adorned by two great and most beautiful elms : 
between these there had been constructed an immense 
arbor, in which was a table covered with jars and dishes 
of conserves, and other kinds of sweetmeats and biscuits 
for eating with the chocolate. While they were pre- 
paring the chocolate, heating the water, and adding the 
sugar, the principal Indians and the authorities of the 
village came and knelt down, and kissed our hands, and 
gave us their address, saying that our arrival was a 
happy event for their country, and that they gave' us a 
thousand thanks because we had left our native country, 
our parents, and our firesides, in order to go to regions 
so remote to labor for the salvation of souls ; and that 
they honored us as gods upon earth, and as the apostles 
of Jesus Christ ; and they said so many, many things, 
that only the chocolate put an end to their eloquence. 
We remained an hour, and manifested our gratification 



46 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

for the demonstration of affection and bounty with which 
they had favored us, assuring them that there was not 
any thing in the world more dear to us than their sal- 
vation, and that to procure it we had not feared to ex- 
pose ourselves to all the perils with which we were 
threatened by sea and land; nor even the barbarous 
cruelty of other Indians who did not know the true 
God, in whose service we had resolved to sacrifice even 
life. 

"With this we departed from them, making gifts to 
the chiefs of rosaries, medals, little metal crosses, 'the 
Lamb of God' (Agnus Dei), relics which we brought 
from Spain; and we conceded to each one forty years 
of indulgence, in virtue of the powers which we had 
received from the Pope for distributing them, where, 
when, and to whom we pleased. On our going out from 
the shade of the arbor for mounting our mules, we saw 
the market-place full of men and women on their knees, 
almost adoring us, and asking us to give them our 
blessing. We raised the hand on passing, and gave it 
to them by making the sign of the cross. The submis- 
sion of the poor Indians, and the vanity excited by a 
reception so ceremonious, and with such public homage, 
turned the heads of our young friars, who began to be- 
lieve themselves superior to the bishops of Europe ; and 
even our ijlustrious superiors were not far from pride, 
but exhibited excessive haughtiness, now that they had 
seen their vanity flattered with such great acclamations 
in their sight as were lavished upon us that day, al- 
though we were only some simple friars. The flutes and 
the trumpets began to resound again at the head of our 
procession, and the chiefs of the people accompanied us 
as far as half a league, and afterward they retired to 
their homes." 

Slowly has the stage been moving up the pass. The 



THE ARTIST AMONG THE ROBBERS. 47 

rattle of the wheels has ceased, the sun has made his 
appearance, and the awakened passengers are disposed 
to listen to tales of wild adventures. The loquacious 
are ready with an abundant supply. The best of these 
is the tale of "The Artist among the Bobbers." 

"Four years ago," began the artist who made some 
sketches for this work, "while I was making a pedes- 
trian journey over this road, I seated myself, weak and 
hungry, upon a stone by the roadside, not a little tired 
of life and evil fortune. The remains of the yellow fever 
were still upon me, and only a single dollar burdened 
my pocket ; for I did not learn, until too late, how poor 
a place for an artist from abroad is this country, where 
the San Carlos is creating the native article by scores. 
I had not sat long in my gloomy mood before I had 
company enough; for as I looked up I saw, trooping 
down the side of the hill, a band of men, who I thought 
would soon put an end to my troubles. I took the 
thing coolly, for I cared little for the result ; and had I 
cared, there was no helping it now. So I patiently 
waited their arrival. To the questions of the only one 
who could talk English I answered briefly, as I sup- 
posed they would soon end my troubles. When I told 
him that I cared little if he did kill me, the whole party 
laughed uproariously. The leader now came up, and 
having searched me, found my story to be true. I then 
drew an outline of a picture with my pencil, and gave it 
to him. This so pleased him that he wrote me a memo- 
randum, and with verbal directions as to the way I was 
to go if I wished for lodgings for the night, he bade me 
adieu, and the party disappeared up the side of the 
woody hill, and I set out on my journey." 

The leagues were very long, but the landmarks 
were unmistakable; and without difficulty the artist 
reached the house and presented his paper to the old 



48 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

woman that appeared at the door. This paper procured 
him a good supper, and comfortable quarters for the 
night ; for his fine open countenance and yellow hair 
seemed to have touched the heart of this old Mexican 
matron — a class of persons, by-the-way, who are the 
kindest mortals in the world. The good cheer disposed 
of, he gathered up his feet upon his mat for the night, 
and slept as men do who have nothing to fear from rob- 
bers. When in the morning he awoke, he found the old 
dame astir, preparing for him an early breakfast, which 
was of a quality unexpected in so unpretending a man- 
sion. When breakfast was prepared, and after he had 
finished eating it, the old woman made him understand 
by signs that he was to go into the adjoining room and 
there replenish his dilapidated wardrobe. She supplied 
him with a new suit from head to heel, and then urged 
him to tie around his waist a small sheep's entrail filled 
with brandy, according to the custom of Mexican Indi- 
ans. Thus had our transient friend had his inner and 
outer man supplied in this out-of-the-way hut, at the 
robbers' charges, after which, being shown the direction 
in which to reach the Jalapa road, he bade the kind old 
matron adios, and traveled on to Encerro with a lighter 
heart than he had borne the day before. 

At Encerro we left four of our fellow-passengers. 
They were the son and three daughters of the widow who 
kept the inn. They had been through a full course of 
studies in one of the Roman Catholic boarding-schools in 
the United States, and were now returned, having fully 
mastered the English language — the great desideratum 
of the Spanish-American people, and one of the sources 
from which the Catholic schools and colleges in the 
United States derive their support. 

What a beautiful spot is Encerro, the country resi- 
dence of Santa Anna ! It may not be as productive as 



ENCEKRO. 49 

his estate of Manga de Clavo, in the hot country, near 
Vera Cruz ; but it is more salubrious and delightful. 
In the civil wars he had often made a stand here, and 
had learned to appreciate the beauty of the spot long be- 
fore he was rich enough to make the purchase — for the 
pay received by officers of the highest rank in Mexico, 
is not sufficient to enable them to accumulate a fortune 
till far advanced in life. Politicians in Mexico, as in 
all other countries, are not unwilling to hazard their 
private fortunes in their political contests, and though 
the estates of the unsuccessful parties are not confiscated 
in a revolution, one reason may be that they are not or- 
dinarily of great value. 

The stage-coach has been forgotten in story-telling 
while slowly climbing up the pass, but as soon as we 
had overcome this impediment we started off again 
upon an unrepaired road, at our former neck-breaking 
speed, which we kept up until we reached Encerro, 
where for a little way we had an earthen road. Yet it 
was only a short breathing before we were upon the 
rough stones again. We had been gradually passing- 
through different strata of atmosphere in our journey 
upward, the changes in the character of the vegetation 
kept pace with the change of the climate. 

" Whose is that estate inclosed by such an antiquated 
looking stone wall ?" I inquired, of a fellow-traveler. 

" That belongs to Don Isidoro ; and it extends some 
thirty leagues," was the reply. "You see that ridge of 
hills. That is its northern boundary. This wall sepa- 
rates it from the estate of Santa Anna. In fact it is 
surrounded by a continuous and substantial stone-wall, 
sufficient to keep in cattle. This spot of land sufficiently 
large for a county, with a soil the richest in the world, 
and a climate like that of Jalapa, is given up to be a 
range for thousands of cattle." 

C 



50 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

We must hasten to our journey's end, which, for the 
present, is Jalapa. While here, we can sum up the 
story of our eighteen hours' ride. From Vera Cruz we 
passed through a tropical marsh, presenting a striking 
contrast to what we had witnessed about that town. In 
place of being surrounded by hot, shifting hillocks of 
sand, we were in the midst of tropical vegetation. 
Trees not only bore their own natural burdens, but 
were borne down with creepers, vines, and parasitic 
plants ; forming one strange mass of foliage of very 
many distinct kinds matted together and mingled into 
one. Plantations of vanilla, of coffee, of cocoa, or of 
sugar-cane, nowhere approached our road; nor were 
the cocoa-nut, the banana, and the plantain, so familiar 
in all tropical climates, often visible. Upon the whole 
route there were little evidences of labor, except those 
furnished by the road itself. It was all wilderness. 
Yet the graceful features of the creepers, hanging from 
branch to branch of the sycamores, and the shady arbors 
formed by their dense foliage, looked as though a gar- 
dener's hand could be traced in so much regularity; 
yet it was only Nature's own gardening, where the wild 
birds might build their nests, and breed, and sing with- 
out fear of disturbance. How often have I dismounted, 
while riding along such a forest, by the side of some 
running brook, and while my horse was feeding I have 
almost fallen asleep under the soothing influence which 
such an atmosphere produces upon a traveler, heated by 
fast riding under a vertical sun. It is one of those hap- 
py sensations that can not well be described, nor can it 
be appreciated by those who have not experienced it. 
Poets have exhausted their power in painting the beau- 
ties of scenes where all the senses are satiated with en- 
joyment. Yet this voluptuous gratification is soon 
alloyed by the evils that remind us that Paradise is not 



A TKOPICAL FOREST. 51 

to be found upon this earth. Here is seen the whole 
animal kingdom busily laboring for the destruction of 
its kind. Reptiles prey upon each other; parasitic 
plants fix themselves upon trees and suck up the sap 
of their existence ; and man, while he enjoys to a surfeit 
these bounties of nature, must watch narrowly against 
the venom and the poison that comes to mar his pleas- 
ure, and teach him the wholesome lesson that true hap- 
piness is only found in Heaven. We are now at our 
journey's end. 






V 



CHAPTER IV. 

Jalapa. — The extraordinary Beauty and Fertility of this Spot. — Jalap, 
Sarsaparilla, Myrtle, Vanilla, Cochineal, and Wood of Tohasco. — 
The charming Situation of Jalapa. — Its Flowers and its Fruits. — Mag- 
nificent Views. — The tradition that Jalapa was Paradise. — A speck 
of War. — The Marriage of a Heretic. — A gambling Scene in a 
Convent. 

Byeon's lines, in the opening of "The Bride of 
Abydos" are gorgeous enough: 

"Know ye the land of the cedar and vine, 
Where the flowers ever blossom, the beams ever shine ; 
Where the light wings of Zephyr, oppress'd with perfume, 
Wax faint o'er the gardens of Gull in their bloom ; 
Where the citron and olive are fairest of fruit, 
And the voice of the nightingale never is mute." 

But the poet would have given them a still more lux- 
uriant coloring had he ever ascended the table-land of 
the tropics, and visited Jalapa, the spot which the na- 
tives insist was the site of the original Paradise. Para- 
dise, jalapa, and myrtle, sound well enough together, 
and do not clash with the native tradition in relation to 
this delightful spot. 

We were now more than four thousand feet above 
the sea, on an extensive plateau, half-way up the 
mountain. The beautiful convolvulus jalapa does not 
flourish here, but is brought from the Indian villages 
of Colipa and Maqautla, situated in the valleys that 
run among the hills. The myrtle, whose grain is the 
spice of Tobasco, is produced in the forests by the river 
Boriderus; the smilax, whose root is the true sarsa- 
parilla, grows deep down in the humid and umbra- 



PEODUCTIONS OF THE VALLEYS. 55 

geous ravines of the Cordilleras ; and cocoa comes from 
Acayucan. From the ever-green forests of Papantla 
and Nautla comes the epide?idrum vanilla, whose odor- 
iferous fruit is used as a perfume. Thus these charac- 
teristic productions of the country come from the mys- 
terious valleys of the neighboring mountain, where, 
nearly a thousand years before any of the present gen- 
eration was born, flourished an unknown race of men 
as civilized as were the people of Palmyra or of Egypt, 
as vast ruins in the forests of Misantla and Papantla 
clearly indicate : a race unknown to the degenerate In- 
dians, who now wander about the ruined edifices and 
isolated pyramids of these cities, lost in the forest, as 
they are to us. A thousand years have passed away — 
their history has perished forever. The old books say 
that the delicate little scarlet insect, cochineal, was 
once a product of this district, and Jalapa was its prop- 
er market, and the mart of all the other peculiar pro- 
ductions of the neighboring region, because it was the 
town on the high land nearest to the sea-port. 

Jalapa early became an important position to which 
foreign goods were brought to be exchanged for silver 
and gold, jalap, sarsaparilla, vanilla, spice of Tobasco, 
cocoa, cochineal, and woods of various colors. 

It is the beauty of the place itself, and the unsur- 
passed magnificence of its mountain-scenery, that throws 
such a charm around Jalapa. The transparency of its 
atmosphere makes the snow-crowned Orizaba and Perote, 
in the coast range of mountains, appear close at hand, 
with their dense forests of perpetual foliage, moistened 
incessantly by the clouds driven upon them from the 
ocean. High up in the region of perpetual moisture, 
Jalapa has a soil intensely luxuriant, and is beyond 
the reach of those parasitic plants of the low lands, that 
fix themselves upon other plants and trees, and eat out 



56 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

their very life, as the malarias do that of the human "be- 
ing. Roses of the most choice varieties grow spontane- 
ously by the roadside, or creep over the walls. Nature, 
the parent of architects, has here shaped all her trees 
upon the most exquisite models. The very twig plant- 
ed in a hedge, if left to itself, grows up into a tree 
which gracefully inclines its head like a weeping wil- 
low; while a mammoth white bell, or trumpet flower, 
hangs pendent from the extremity of every limb, each 
flower larger and more beautiful than our favorite house 
lily, and giving forth a richer odor than the rose. From 
the exquisite delicacy and richness of the fruit which 
this plant (the chirimoya) bears, and the danger arising 
from eating of it too freely, it is not unfrequently called 
the tree of the forbidden fruit ; sometimes also it is 
called the custard plant. 

Among the pleasing sights which we beheld was an 
orange orchard, in which I did not see a single tree that 
was not delicately and gracefully formed. In this pro- 
fusion of nature I saw our own favorite flowers. A tiny 
crimson rose was creeping about in every place, while 
the large pink rose, which grew so rank, was clinging to 
an old wall and in full blossom ; and many other vari- 
eties of crimson, white, yellow, and scarlet roses grow 
here without care ; the morning-glory and honey-suckle 
are wild flowers here; the sweet-william, the lady-slip- 
per, and all the flowers that we cultivate in summer, 
appear here to be spontaneous productions of nature. 
Even that sweetest and most beautiful of flowers, the 
passion-flower, with its mystical cross and five protrud- 
ing seeds, was running over a frame, and yielding a 
profusion of blossoms, and a fruit — the granada — which 
almost equals in richness and delicacy the fruit of the 
chirimoya. But all the natural wonders of this town 
are not yet enumerated ; for the fruits as well as the 



THE PARADISE OF JALAPA. 57 

flowers of every climate flourish in Jalapa. There are 
strawberries, of the largest size, growing beside a coffee- 
tree, the tree being filled with coffee-berries. Peach- 
trees were in full blossom in November, beside apricots 
and chirimoyas, while potatoes flourish among the bul- 
bous productions of a tropical climate. The people of 
the town take a pride in its natural beauty ; and there 
are no filthy alleys, no squalid poverty, or unclean- 
ly hovels. Every house appears to be of stone ; the 
walls neatly whitewashed, and bordered with pink, red, 
blue, green, or yellow ; and the streets are fashioned to 
suit the grounds, without regard to checker-board reg- 
ularity. 

I stood in an upper story of the house of a Mr. Todd, 
on the opposite side of the little stream that runs in front 
of the town, and looked out from that favored position. 
The sun had just escaped from the folds of an imprison- 
ing cloud, and was shining full upon the beautiful town 
and hill. The un absorbed moisture on the leaves gave 
them an additional lustre. The green peering up every 
where amidst the whitened walls ; the graceful form of 
the trees, where their outline could be traced ; the curi- 
ously shaped roofs of the old stone churches, with but- 
tresses and towers ; the college of San Francisco, a 
curiously fashioned pile of buildings, standing out above 
all others ; the hill behind the town, the lofty mountain 
of Perote, on its left flank, on whose top the sky seemed 
to rest — all combined to give credibility to that which 
has been said of the beauty of Jalapa by an old Span- 
ish author — that Jalapa was " a piece of heaven let 
down to earth." This figure was afterward applied to 
Naples, and the remark was added — " See Naples, and 
die." But the Jalapanos say, " See Jalapa, and pray 
for immortality, that you may enjoy it forever." It is 
the boast of the Indian, that "Jalapa is Paradise." 



58 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

One is almost tempted to agree with them ; for here 
grow all plants that are pleasant to the eye, or good for 
food. Adam and Eve were not placed in the garden 
to plant and to sow, but to prune and dress the plants 
that grew of themselves. Here grow an abundance of 
broad-leaved plants, and for thread there is the fibre of 
the maguey, or century plant ; while the thorns of the 
cactus are the needles used among the natives ; so that 
all the materials were at ready hand for making their 
garments, as soon as our first parents had their eyes 
opened — by taking Jalap, I suppose — and so discover- 
ing that they were naked. It is a curious conceit, that 
the sin of Adam, in introducing a parasite into Eden, 
entailed a curse on this medicinal plant, which from that 
day, the story goes, has for very shame hid its face by 
day, and only by night opened its pretty scarlet flowers, 
which close again as the morning light appears. 

In favor of the notion that Jalapa was the ancient 
Paradise, the argument is, that Paradise must have been 
in the tropics, in a region elevated far above the baleful 
heat and malaria of the low lands, in a climate where 
plants could grow to the utmost perfection. And there 
is no such place in the world except Jalapa. Here, 
too, when the daily shower, which is requisite to bring 
all vegetable nature to perfection, rendered garments 
of wool necessary to protect humanity from rheumatism, 
nature had provided the needles and thread needed to 
fashion them. So that, taken all together, this Indian 
theory is more probable than many of the unnumbered 
traditions of this country, where traditions and miracles 
appear to grow as spontaneously as wild flowers. 

In such a spot as this, where all the powers of nature 
seem to have combined to form an earthly Paradise, 
and where the surrounding mountain-scenery is unsur- 
passed on the earth's surface, we might look for en- 



A REVOLUTION. 59 

larged notions of the power, the majesty, and wisdom 
of that God who created it all. But images, like dolls, 
tricked out in the tawdry finery, are the objects which 
this people adore, and to whom they attribute more mi- 
raculous powers than were ever ascribed to the gods of 
their heathen ancestors. Humboldt says, " This people 
have changed their ceremonies, but not their religious 
dogmas."* 

But let us take a look at the interior of this town. 
It is a little disturbed now, as there was a revolution 
yesterday — a revolution and a counter-revolution in 
fact, all in one day. 

The Governor and Legislature of the State of Yera 
Cruz, which meets in this place, were taken prisoners 
in the forenoon, for imposing a tax upon the retail trade ; 
but in the afternoon their friends rallied, and the Gov- 
ernor and Legislature were released, and the rebels 
driven from the town. In this double battle one man, 
at least, lost his life, for the funeral took place as we 
entered. War is a terrible calamity at any time; but 
when it is carried to that foolish extent of shedding 
blood, it becomes an intolerable evil, and prudent men 
show their wisdom by running from it : at least they 
did so at Jalapa. 

Jalapa, it may be here remarked, is built on the site 
of an old Indian village, which was one of the first to 
enter into alliance with Cortez. For the benefit of the 
original inhabitants, that Franciscan Convent was built 
by the conqueror. It is now converted into a college. 
Its steeple is worth a visit, and well rewards the labor 
of climbing ; for from it another view, even more splen- 
did than that I have described, is to be obtained. From 
this point the snow-covered Orizaba is added to the al- 
ready imposing prospect ; both it and Perote, with the 

* Essai Politique. 



60 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

intervening mountain and valleys, can all be embraced 
at a single glance. The position of the valleys, which 
produce the different plants that have been enumerated, 
are here pointed out ; and from this spot, they show the 
place where the mountain has been pierced in search of 
the precious metals, while a little way off is the road 
to the extensive copper-mines. 

There is a curious story about the first marriage that 
took place between a heretic and a Jalapina. The hero 
held the important position of agent of the English 
Heal del Monte Company at Jalapa. In one of the 
families that had been greatly reduced in their worldly 
circumstances by the ruin of the Consulado of Vera 
Cruz, was a dark beauty with whom he became deeply 
enamored. But how to make her his wife was the dif- 
ficulty. The lady was willing — was more than willing ; 
"for when the fires of Spanish love are kindled, they 
burn unextinguishably," says the proverb. Or, in the 
poetical language of the Indians, "it burns as did the 
fires of Mount Orizaba in its youth — fires that only 
went out when its head was coated with silver gray." 
The mother was willing; and no one but the Church 
had aught to say why they should not be united. How 
could the holy sacrament of matrimony be profaned by 
administering it to a heretic? It never had been, it 
never must be, in the Republic. He might take the 
woman if he chose, and live with her; but to marry 
them would be a sin. So said the Padre of the parish, 
and so said every dignitary of the Church up to the 
Bishop of Puebla, then the only remaining bishop in 
the Republic. The intercession of political authorities 
was invoked. The matter became serious, and a coun- 
cil was held at Puebla to dispose of the case. From 
this holy council came the intimation to the lover that 
a bribe of $2000 might be of service. But John Bull 



THE HERETIC AND THE JALAPINA. 61 

by this time had "become stubborn. He had spent 
money enough ; he would spend no more ; he would 
get a chaplain from a man-of-war then at Yera Cruz ; 
or, better still, he would take his intended bride to New 
Orleans ; for he would be married and not mated, as is 
the case of those who can not raise the fee claimed by 
the priest. He would not be ranked with that poverty- 
stricken set that are unmarried, or, as the phrase is, 
are "married behind the Church." He was no jpeon. 
It was contrary to an Englishman's ideas to have a 
wife unmarried; and as no English chaplain came along, 
he wrote to the Roman Catholic Bishop of New Orleans, 
giving an account of his difficulties, and inquired if he 
would marry him under the circumstances. With a 
liberality that ever distinguishes Catholic functionaries 
in Protestant countries, he promptly replied that he 
would marry them personally, if the parties would come 
to New Orleans, or, if he should chance to be unavoid- 
ably engaged, then his chaplain should perform the cere- 
mony. Whereupon our hero and his lady-love started 
for New Orleans ; and being there united in holy mat- 
rimony by the bishop, spent the happy month, so long 
deferred, in festivities, and then returned home, suppos- 
ing that their troubles were now all at an end. 

But this foreign marriage proved to be only the be- 
ginning of evil to them. They had committed an un- 
pardonable sin ; they had defrauded the priest of his 
fee, and had set a bad example, which others might 
follow for the very economy of the thing. 

Hardly had our newly -wedded pair found them- 
selves located in their own house, and finished receiving 
the usual round of congratulations, when the wife was 
summoned to appear before the priest. She at once 
complied, accompanied by her husband. The priest in- 
quired why the husband came, as he had not been sent 



62 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

for ; lie had only sent for the wife. The husband gave 
him an Englishman's answer — that she was his wife, 
and where she went, there it was his place to go. The 
priest's reply to this opened the cause. The marriage 
was not lawful, and he must detain her, and send her 
on to Puebla, and have her placed in a convent. Such 
was the order he had received, and which he exhibited ; 
and the two soldiers at the door were stationed there to 
carry the order into execution. 

At this point in the affair the Englishman drew two 
arguments from under his coat, and leveling one of 
them at the head of the padre, suggested to him the 
propriety of not interposing any obstacle to the return 
of himself and wife to their home. This was a poser ; 
an act of open impiety ; a Kentucky argument. But 
there was no remedy. The Inquisition was not now 
in authority ; its instruments of torture had been de- 
stroyed ; its fires had been extinguished ; and so the 
Englishman got the best of the argument, and retired 
peaceably to his own home. 

At his house the Englishman was waited upon by 
the Alcalde, who informed him that he had been ordered 
to take the wife, and that he dared not disobey. But 
he suggested a method by which the order might be 
evaded. This was to send the wife every day, at a cer- 
tain hour, into a neighbor's house, and at that hour the 
officers would come and search his dwelling, and would 
accordingly report "Not found." This farce continued 
to be enacted daily for nearly three months, when the 
husband, becoming tired of it, wrote to the Bishop 
of New Orleans an account of the manner in which 
his house had been besieged, and in due time re- 
ceived a reply from that excellent ecclesiastic, stat- 
ing that he would satisfactorily arrange the busi- 
ness; at the same time expressing his regrets that 



THE MONK AT JALAPA. 63 

he had not before Tbeen informed of the condition of 
affairs. 

In the mean time, another priest in the town chanced 
to be discussing the all-absorbing question of the day, 
the heretic marriage, and unfortunately happened to 
remark that a marriage by an American priest was not 
a lawful marriage. This was too much for our English- 
man, and he answered it — as an Englishman is accus- 
tomed to answer insulting remarks in relation to the 
affairs of his household — not by a single blow, but by 
such a pommeling as never a priest had sustained since 
the Conquest. Yet there was no earthquake on the 
occasion, and Orizaba was not discomposed at witness- 
ing such a shocking act of impiety. 

Time moved on, and with it came the parish priest to 
validate the marriage. But our Englishman would not be 
validated. No, not he ; and when the priest began to 
mutter and to move his hands, the Englishman's blood 
was up, and so was his foot, and this ceremony was 
'•'erminated according to a formula not laid down in any 
prayer-book now extant. This was the end of the war. 
The pair had passed through many tribulations in order 
to consummate their union ; yet both declare that the 
prize was worth the contest. 

Our good monk, with whom we parted at Vera Cruz, 
visited the convent at Jalapa, on his journey, and thus 
records what he saw : 

" The night of our arrival at Jalapa we were enter- 
tained at the convent of San Francisco, where we passed 
the day following, as it was Sunday. The income of 
this convent is great, notwithstanding the community 
is composed of only six religios, though it might 
well maintain more than a score of them. The guard- 
ian of Jalapa is no less vain than the prior of Vera 
Cruz ; but he received us with much kindness, and 



64 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

treated us magnificently, although we were of another 
order. 

"In this town, as in all others, we observed that the 
lives and customs of the clergy, both seculars and regu- 
lars (monks), were greatly relaxed, and that their con- 
duct completely gave the lie to their vows and their 
professions. The order of San Francisco, besides the 
vows common to the other orders ; that is to say, 
chastity and obedience, exacts that the vow of poverty 
shall be observed more scrupulously than the other 
mendicants enforce it. Their dress should be of coarse 
cloth, and of a color to which they have given a name 
[monk's gray] ; their girdles, or cordons, of rope, and 
their shirts of wool, if they can bear them. They are 
to go without stockings ; and, finally, it is not lawful 
for them to use shoes, but to wear sandals. Not only 
are they prohibited having money, but they ought not 
even to touch it ; neither to possess any thing as their 
own. In their journeys it is forbidden them to mount 
a horse, although they should fall by the way from 
fatigue. It is necessary that they should go afoot with 
sorrow and fatigue ; esteeming the infraction of any of 
these precepts a mortal sin, which merits excommunica- 
tion and hell. But they neglect all the obligations 
which the rigorous observance of these rules imposes 
upon them — to the neglect of all discipline, and to the 
disregard of the penalties. Those that have been trans- 
ported to this country live in a manner which does not 
in any thing show that they have made a vow to God 
of even trifling privations. Their lives are so free and 
immodest that it might be suspected, with reason, that 
they had renounced only that which they could not, or 
were unable to attain. 

"We were surprised and even scandalized at the ex- 
traordinary sight of a San Franciscan of Jalapa, riding 



MONKISH GAMBLING. 65 

a most beautiful mule, with a groom, or rather lackey, 
behind him, while only going to the end of the village 
to confess a sick man. His reverence, as he went along, 
had his garments tucked up from beneath, which exhib- 
ited a stocking of orange-color ; a shoe of the most ex- 
quisite morocco ; small clothes of Holland linen ; with 
knots and braids of four fingers in width. Such a spec- 
tacle made us observe with more attention the conduct 
of that friar, and that of others beneath whose broad 
sleeves were exhibited a jacket embroidered with silk. 
They also wore shirts of Holland ; and hand-ruffs in- 
closed their hands. But we did not discover, either in 
their garments or in their table, any thing that indi- 
cated mortification ; on the contrary, every thing exhib- 
ited the same vanity which was noted in the people of 
the world. 

"After supper some of them began to speak of cards 
and dice, and they invited us to play, in order to contrib- 
ute to the entertainment of their guests, one hand at a 
rubber. Almost all of our party excused themselves ; 
some for want of money, others from not knowing the 
play. At lengtli they found two of our religious that 
would place themselves hand to hand with other two 
Franciscans. The party being arranged, they com- 
menced playing with admirable dexterity. A little was 
put down at first ; it was doubled. The loss vexed the 
one, the gain stimulated the other. At the end of a 
quarter of an hour the convent of the Angelic Order* of 
our father of San Francisco had converted itself into a 
gaming house, and the poor religious (friars) into pro- 
fane worldlings. We, who were simply spectators, had 
occasion to observe what passed in the play, and to ac- 
quire matter for reflection upon such a life. As the 
game went on engrossing in interest, the scandal con- 
* This is the title of this order of friars. 



m MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

tinned to increase. The draughts of liquor were re- 
peated with much frequency; the tongue unloosed it- 
self; oaths mingled themselves with jests, while loud 
laughter made the edifice to tremble. The vow of pov- 
erty did not escape from the sacrilegious mirth. One 
of the San Franciscans, who had often touched money 
with his fingers and placed it on the table, when he 
gained any considerable sum, in order to divert the com- 
pany, opened his broad sleeve, and with the hem he 
swept the table of all the stakes, amounting sometimes 
to more than twenty gold ounces, into his other sleeve ; 
saying, at the same time, " Take care of it thou that 
canst, I have made a vow not to touch it." It was im- 
possible for me to listen to such imprecations, and to 
witness such scandalous lives, without being moved; 




GAMBLING IN A CONVENT. 



MOEALS OF THE MONKS. 67 

more than once I was on the point of reproving them, 
but I considered that I was a stranger, a passing guest, 
and besides, what I should say to them would be like 
preaching to the desert. I therefore rose up without 
making any noise and went to my sleeping-place, leav- 
ing the profane crowd, who continued with their diver- 
sions until the dawn. The next day the friar who had 
played his part with so much facetiousness, with more 
of the manner of a brigand than a religious, more suit- 
able for the school of Sardanapalus or of Epicurus than 
for the life of a cloister, said that he had lost more than 
eighty doubloons, or gold ounces — it appearing that his 
sleeve refused to protect that which he had made a vow 
of never possessing. 

"This was the first lesson which the Franciscans gave 
us of the New World. It clearly appeared that the 
cause of so many friars and Jesuits passing from Spain 
to regions so distant, was libertinage rather than love 
of preaching the gospel, or zeal for the conversion of 
souls. If that love, if that zeal, were the motives of 
their conduct, they might offer their own depravity as 
an argument in favor of the truths of the gospel. Wan- 
tonness, licentiousness, avarice, and the other vices 
which stained their conduct, discovered their secret in- 
tentions. Their anxiety for enriching themselves, their 
vanity, the authority which they exercised over the 
poor Indians, are the motives which actuate them, and 
not the love of God or the propagating of the faith." 



CHAPTER V. 

The War of the Secret Political Societies of Mexico. — The Scotch and 
the York Tree-Masons. — Anti-Masons. — Eival classes compose Scotch 
Lodges. — The Yorkinos. — Men desert from the Scotch to the York 
Lodges. — Law to suppress Secret Societies. — The Escoces, or Scotch 
Masons, take up arms. — The Battle. — Their total Defeat. 

As Jalapa is a pleasant resting-place in a journey to 
the interior, we will stop here to discuss national affairs 
for a little while. The first political subject in order is 
the furious contest that for ten years was carried on 
between two political societies, known as the Escoces 
and Yorkinos — or, as we should call them, Scotch 
Free-Masons and York Free-Masons — whose secret or- 
ganizations were employed for political purposes by 
two rival political parties. 

At the time of the restoration of the Constitutional 
Government of Spain in 1820, Free-Masonry was intro- 
duced into Mexico ; and as it was derived from the 
Scotch branch of that order, it was called, after the 
name of the people of Scotland, Escoces. Into this 
institution were initiated many of the old Spaniards 
still remaining in the country, the Creole aristocracy, 
and the privileged classes — parties that could ill endure 
the elevation of a Creole colonel, Iturbide, to the Im- 
perial throne. When Mr. Poinsett was sent out as 
Embassador to Mexico, he carried with him the charter 
for a Grand Lodge from the American, or York order 
of Free-Masons in the United States. Into this new 
order the leaders of the Democratic party were initiated. 
The bitter rivalry that sprung up between these two 



MASONS AND ANTI-MASONS. 69 

branches of the Masonic body, kept the country in a 
ferment for ten years, and resulted finally in the forma- 
fion~of a party whose motto was opposition to all secret 
societies, and who derived their name of Anti-Masons 
from the party of the same name then flourishing in the 
United States. 

When the Escoces had so far lost ground in popular 
favor, as to be in the greatest apprehension from their 
prosperous but imbittered rivals, the Yorkinos, as a last 
resort, to save themselves, and to ruin the hated or- 
ganization, they pronounced against all secret societies. 
Suerez y Navarro, in his " Life of Santa Anna," thus 
relates the history of these Secret Political Societies : 

"After the lodges had been established, crowds ran 
to initiate themselves into the mysteries of Free-Ma- 
sonry ; persons of all conditions, from the opulent mag- 
nates down to the humblest artisans. In the Scotch 
lodges were the Spaniards who were disaffected toward 
the independence ; Mexicans who had taken up arms 
against the original insurgents through error or ignor- 
ance ; those who obstinately declared themselves in fa- 
vor of calling the Spanish Bourbons to the Imperial 
throne of Mexico ; those who disliked the Federal sys- 
tem ; the partisans of the ancient regime ; the enemies 
of all reform, even when reforms were necessary, as the 
consequence of the independence. To this party (after 
the overthrow of the Empire) also belonged the parti- 
sans of Iturbide ; those who were passionately devoted 
to monarchy ; and the privileged classes. 

" In the assemblages of the Yorkinos were united all 
who were republicans from conviction, and those who 
followed the popular current — the mass of the people 
having devoted themselves to this organization. It is 
enough to say, in order to mark the position of both 
parties, that among the Yorkinos figured, in great num- 



70 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

bers, those that believed the name of republican was not 
a mere imagination. 

"Some individuals of both associations had the same 
object and the same identical end, and only differed in 
the modes of making their principles triumphant. A 
great number of persons, who co-operated in the crea- 
tion of the new order, had belonged to the Scotch order, 
and had labored for the overthrow of Iturbide. They 
knew the secrets of the Scotch party, their projects, 
their tendencies ; and the desertion of such furnished 
a thousand elements to the new order to make war upon 
the party they had abandoned. When parties were 
fully organized and assailing each other, the contest be- 
came terrible, and its consequences fearfully disastrous. 
Actions the most harmless, and questions purely per- 
sonal, were matters for the contests of parties. The 
press was the organ of mutual accusations — now against 
particular individuals, and now against parties in con- 
junction. The Escoces multiplied their attacks until 
they lost all influence in affairs. Generals, Senators, 
Deputies, and Ministers abandoned their standard, as 
time increased the power of their rival with every class 
of individuals that embraced the new order. In the 
nature of things there was desertion and fear, because, 
as a writer, who was initiated into both orders, remarks : 
'A general enthusiasm had taken possession of men's 
minds, who thought they saw in the new order the es- 
tablishment of future prosperity.' " 

" The seekers for office found ready access in these 
lodges to those who had office to dispense. The liberal 
found in the York lodges the strong support of liberty 
and liberal institutions. The high functionaries of gov- 
ernment found aid and support in the strength of opin- 
ions ; and the people, ever in search of novelty, united 
themselves to this association, in order to form one mass 



INTRIGUES. 71 

which sooner or later would suppress the privileged 
classes. 

"No intrigue, nor any effort, was able to check the 
progress of the York lodges. This induced their ene- 
mies to present the project of a law in the Senate, where 
the Escoces had a majority, to suppress secret societies 
by severe penalties against those who adhered to such 
associations. For the better insuring of success, the 
Escoces assumed the language of morality ; and, con- 
founding their own affair with that of their native coun- 
try, clamored hypocritically against the pernicious influ- 
ence which clandestine meetings exercised in public 
affairs. According to them the cry of the nation was 
against secret societies. The bill passed the Senate 
after prolonged discussion, being supported by those 
persons who knew it was intended to satisfy an offend- 
ed party, whose prestige diminished day by day. If 
the factions had not originated in secret societies, they 
might have extirpated the evil by proscribing masonry. 
When have the ravages of the hurricane been found to 
content themselves with logical and pleasant words ? 
At what time, and in what country, has a law been en- 
forced, where those who were "to execute it found an 
insuperable obstacle in their own sentiments ? Indeed, 
it was impossible to destroy the political fanaticism of 
the day by the mere dash of a pen ! The evil had gone 
to its utmost limit, and could not be cured by rigor or 
persecution. 

" The demoralization was so great that it extended 
to the armed force, because the greater part of the chiefs 
and officers had joined one or the other of the societies. 
Besides the seductive influences of the lodges, two gen- 
erals, distinguished for their services in the first insur- 
rectionary war, brought with them a number of soldiers 
to the party to which each severally belonged. General 



72 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

Nicholas Bravo was the head of the Escoces, and Don 
Yincente Guerrero was the leader of the Yorkinos. Both 
derived support from the names and prestige of these 
two personages, and from the popularity which each en- 
joyed with his companions-in-arms. The Scotch party 
feared the day would come, in which the deputies — the 
majority of whom were their enemies — would decree the 
total proscription of all those persons who were hostile, 
or suspected of being hostile, to the Yorkinos, as the 
Chambers had fallen into the practice of submitting to 
the caprices of the dominant order. They therefore ap- 
pealed to arms, having exhausted the right of petition. 

"General Bravo, Yice-President of Mexico, and leader 
of the Escoces, having issued his proclamation, declaring 
that, as a last resort, he appealed to arms to rid the re- 
public of that pest — secret societies, and that he would 
not give up the contest until he had rooted them out, 
root and branch, took up his position at Tulansingo — a 
village about thirty miles north of the City of Mexico. 
Here, at about daylight on the morning of the 7th Jan- 
uary, 1828, he was assailed by General Guerrero, the 
leader of the Yorkinos, and commander of the forces of 
government." 

After a slight skirmish, in which eight men were 
killed and six wounded, General Bravo and his party 
were made prisoners ; and thus perished forever the 
party of the Escoces. This victory was so complete as 
to prove a real disaster to the Yorkinos. The want of 
outside pressure led to internal dissensions ; so that 
when two of its own members, Guerrero and Pedraaa, 
became rival candidates for the presidency, the election 
was determined by a resort to arms, which brought 
about the terrible insurrection of the Acordada. 



CHAPTER VI. 

Mexico becomes an Empire. — Santa Anna deposes the Emperor. — He 
proclaims a Republic. — He pronounces against the Election of Ped- 
raza, the second President. — His situation in the Convent at Oajaca. 
— He captures the Spanish Armada. — And is made General of 
Division. 

We left Santa Anna at Yera Cruz, having just com- 
pleted the first of those politico-military insurrections 
which fill up the history of his times.. He had added 
the city of Yera Cruz to the national cause, by a timely 
insurrection. Iturbide had rewarded him for this im- 
portant service by bestowing upon him the ribbon of the 
order of Guadalupe, making him second in command at 
Yera Cruz. The chief command of the department was 
bestowed upon an old insurrectionary leader, who was 
known by the assumed name of Guadalupe Yictoria. 
He was a good-natured, honest, inefficient old man, 
whose great merit consisted in having lived for two 
years in a dense forest, far beyond the habitations of 
men. While thus hiding himself from a host of pur- 
suers, he acquired that habit, supposed to be peculiar 
to wild beasts, of passing several days without food, 
and then eating inordinate quantities — a habit which he 
found impossible to change in after-life, when he had 
become President of Mexico. The story of this man's 
sojourn among wild beasts had been told all over Mexico, 
and had given him a great popularity, which he brought 
to the support of the national cause. 

In 1822 the Mexican nation was still in its swaddling 
clothes. Its birth had hardly cost a pang ; but its in- 

D 



74 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

fancy, its childhood, and its youth, were to be attended 
with a series of convulsions, the fruits of the vicious 
seeds sown in the conception of the new State. By the 
pronu?icia?niento of a part of a regiment of the King's 
Creole troops the connection between Spain and Mexico 
was severed forever, and the colonel of these troops be- 
came the Emperor of Mexico. In this revolution the 
nation acquiesced, and thus discovered to the soldiery 
their unlimited power when their arms are turned 
against their own government. From that time onward 
Mexico, like every other country where the Spanish lan- 
guage is spoken, became the victim of her own soldiery. 
This liberation of Mexico was by no means the result of 
the outburst of national patriotism, but the consequence 
of the utter incapacity of Spain longer to hold the reins 
of her colonial governments. She indeed sent out a new 
vice-king to Mexico after the breaking out of the insur- 
rection; but the best that he could do was to sanction 
what had been done by a treaty at Cordova, in which 
it was stipulated that Iturbide and the new viceroy, 
O'Donoghue, should be associated with others in a re- 
gency, until Spain should send out one of the Spanish 
Bourbon princes to occupy the imperial throne of Mexico. 
The Spanish parliament refused to sanction the treaty 
of Cordova ; O'Donoghue died, and Iturbide was left in 
possession of executive power, without a denned office, 
while an insane opposition sprung up against him in the 
new Congress which he had called together. This un- 
looked-for opposition soon convinced him that the tearing 
away of a nation from its traditional ideas was like the 
letting out of waters, and that he must either ride upon 
the wave or be overborne by the tempest. A resolution 
of Congress, to take from him the command of the army, 
brought matters to a crisis. Accordingly, on the night 
of the 18th of March, 1821, he caused himself to be pro- 



ITUEBIDE DEPOSED. 75 

claimed Emperor by his partisans ; and the next day 
this new revolutionary act was confirmed by Congress, 
under the intimidation of military force, and the nation 
again acquiesced. 

The revolution had caused a stagnation in all the de- 
partments of commerce and of revenue. Iturbide had 
inaugurated his insurrection by seizing, at Iguala, a 
million of dollars belonging to the Manilla Company, on 
its way to Acapulco. He made another like seizure at 
Perote ; but these high-handed measures, while they 
proved but a drop in the bucket toward sustaining his 
government, increased his embarrassments, by destroy- 
ing all confidence ; so that his new authority had 
stamped upon it the unmistakable marks of dissolution. 
He was an emperor without traditional associations ; he 
had an empire without a revenue ; a large standing army 
without pay. The fickle multitude, who supposed that 
independence was to prove an antidote for every evil, 
began to murmur ; while a host of demagogues, who en- 
vied the good fortune of Iturbide, were all beginning to 
clamor for a republic. The blow, however, came from 
an unexpected quarter. Santa Anna had quarreled with 
a superior officer, General Echevarri, and Iturbide had 
recalled him from his command. But Santa Anna 
thought it most advisable to disobey the Emperor ; and 
in the Plaza of Yera Cruz, surrounded by the garrison, 
he proclaimed a republic, on the 2d of December, 1822. 
He joined in his insurrection the name and the influence 
of Victoria, yet both were insufficient to save him from a 
complete route at the hands of Echevarri. At the crit- 
ical moment in the affairs of Santa Anna, the Grand 
Lodge of the Ecosces decreed the overthrow of Iturbide, 
and sent orders to General Echevarri, who was a mem- 
ber of the order, to unite his forces to those of Santa 
Anna in overturning the empire. This was a bitter pill 



76 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

for that general to swallow, but he swallowed it ; and 
the two leaders together swallowed the empire. 

Iturbide, being unable to stem the torrent of insur- 
rection, had abdicated ; a Republic had been established 
upon the ruins of the empire, and Victoria, the "wild 
man of the woods," was elected first President. He 
served out his time ; but the last year of his govern- 
ment was disturbed by the terrible insurrection of the 
Acordada, which had arisen out of the election of Pe- 
draza as his successor. Santa Anna was, at the time 
of this election, at Jalapa, discharging the duties of Yice- 
Governor of Vera Cruz, when the people of the town 
surrounded his house and called upon him to pronounce 
against the election. Thus becoming implicated, he was 
forced to make a new insurrection. This third pronun- 
ciarniento of Santa Anna, was on the 5th of September, 
1828. 

He made his first stand at the Castle of Perote ; but 
finding this too isolated a position, he marched to Oajaca, 
in the extreme southwest of the Republic, and took up 
his quarters in the Dominican convent of that city. As 
he was closely hemmed in by an active enemy, provis- 
ions grew scarce, and he was forced to resort to a novel 
method of supplying himself. On a feast-day, at the 
San Franciscan church, he dressed a party of his sol- 
diers in the garb of monks, and, having placed them in 
a convenient position, he made prisoners of the whole 
assembled congregation, and then proceeded to divest 
them of all ready cash on hand, and then emptied the 
contribution-box of the money destined for the poor 
saints* at Jerusalem, and retired and ended the war; 
for the successful termination of the insurrection of the 
Acordada in the city of Mexico accomplished the object 
for which Santa Anna took up arms — the declaration 
* Breva Resena Histdrica, p. 280. 



CAPTURE OF THE ARMADA. 77 

by Congress, that General Guerrero, a man of mixed 
blood, was the real President elect, instead of Pedraza, 
a white man, and the candidate of the aristocracy. 

When King Ferdinand had regained his despotic au- 
thority, in 1825, by the aid of French bayonets, he be- 
thought himself of Mexico, the most productive of his 
lost colonial possessions in America, which had yielded, 
to his predecessors, the total sum of $2,040,048,426,* 
or rather an annual revenue in silver dollars of $6,800,000 
during a period of three hundred years. He was also 
incited by his impoverished noblesse, who could no lon- 
ger obtain colonial appointments for their sons. The 
Spanish merchants also complained of the loss of their 
monopolies. But what at last aroused him to activity 
was the expulsion of the Spaniards from Mexico, in 
consequence of the ascendency of the democratic party. 
Those of mixed and Indian blood were now truly en- 
franchised ; and they were heard to utter strange voices, 
which had until then been suppressed by the combined 
power of a spiritual and temporal despotism : so that 
the bones of Cortez, the benefactor of the Kings of 
Spain, were no longer safe in the convent of San Fran- 
cisco, where they had lain for three hundred years, f They 
were in such imminent danger of being dragged out and 
scattered to the winds by the mob, as those of "the 
accursed" enslaver of their race, that they were removed 
by stealth, and for a time deposited in the most sacred 
shrine in Mexico : afterward they were secretly re- 
moved to Europe, where they cried to the Spanish king 
for vengeance on the sacrilegious nation. An Armada 
was at last fitted out, and landed at Tampico ; and now 
all Mexicans, from the President down to the humblest 
j>eo?i, watched the result with the deepest anxiety, as 

* See King's Proclamation, printed at Havana, Gth September, 1831. 
f See note 1 . • 



ib MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

they saw Santa Anna undertaking the defense of the 
country with untried soldiers. For on the issue of the 
struggle depended the question whether the whole na- 
tion should be again reduced to servitude, or whether 
they should be left in the enjoyment of their newly-ac- 
quired liberty. The contest was one of several days' 
continuance: when at last it was terminated by a capit- 
ulation, all Mexico rang with rejoicing ; and Santa Anna, 
then not thirty-five years of age, received the military 
rank which he now holds — General of Division. 



CHAPTER VII. 

In the Stage and out of the Stage. — Still climbing. — A moment's View 
of all the Kingdoms of the World. — Again in obscurity. — The Ma- 
guey, or Century Plant. — The many uses of the Maguey. — The in- 
toxicating juice of the Maguey. — Pulque. — Immense Consumption 
of Pulque. — City of Perote. — Castle of San Carlos de Perote. — Star- 
light upon the Table-land. — Tequisquita. — " The Bad Land." — A 
very old Beggar. — Arrive at Puebla. 

The time allotted for my visit to Jalapa had come to 
a close. I took out the ticket, endorsed Escala donde 
le convengo, which I translated — " Let him stop when, 
where, and as long as he pleases," and once more took 
my seat in the stage, which, on a fine afternoon, was 
starting for Perote upon the table-land. This short 
journey lay across the mountain of Perote, passing 
over an elevation of 10,400 feet, the highest elevation 
that a stage-coach has yet reached, and one from which 
the traveler can oftentimes enjoy a view of all the veg- 
etable "kingdoms of the world in a moment of time." 
I took my seat upon the top of the coach, above the 
driver, that I might enjoy a last lingering look at this 
Nature's paradise, before the mountain -ridge should 
intervene between the world I had left behind, and the 
great salt desert that we were soon to traverse. 

The prospect from the coach -top, as we traveled 
onward, was even more beautiful than that I have 
already described. For several miles beyond Jalapa 
we were descending and passing through one of those 
valleys of which the Spanish poets so often sing, where 
the roadside is covered with a profusion of the flowers 
and vegetation that flourish only in the most luxuriant 



80 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

soil. The valley was soon passed, and we began to 
ascend so rapidly, that before an hour had passed we 
could mark the changing vegetation, and observe the 
products of a colder climate ; for this changing vegetation 
is a barometer, which, in Mexico, marks the ascent and 
descent as regularly as the most nicely- adjusted arti- 
ficial instrument. So accurately are the stratas of vege- 
tation adjusted to the stratas of the atmosphere which 
they inhabit, as to lead the traveler to imagine that a 
gardener's hand had laid out the different fields which 
here rise one above another upon the side of the mount- 
ain that constitutes the eastern inclosure of the table- 
land. The fertility of the soil did not seem to dimin- 
ish ; it was only the character of the vegetation that 
changed step by step, as we wound our way up toward 
the summit of the Perote. 

We changed horses at La Hoya, a place memorable 
in the annals of civil war, as the spot where General 
Rincon blocked up the pass when Santa Anna was 
retiring in 1845, a fugitive from the country. Here 
the road becomes so steep as to induce the traveler to 
walk a little, for the better opportunities he can thus 
have of surveying the novel sights that present them- 
selves at every turn of the road. When he is fatigued 
with climbing, and breathing the peculiar air of this 
altitude, he can seat himself by the roadside to wait 
the arrival of the coach, and to catch momentary 
glimpses, among floating clouds, of the country through 
which he has passed in his ascent from the coast. He 
can see a long distance through such a rarified atmos- 
phere ; but it is only a bird's-eye view, as the mass 
that is heaped together is more than his vision can 
fully take in, before a cloud, ragged and torn, has 
passed across the picture. The eye is delighted more 
with the details of a scene, than with this mass of all 



MOUNTAIN VIEW. 81 

the excellences of all the climates. Still he has time 
to divide into sections the world below him ; and as he 
thus contemplates in part, he at length realizes as a 
whole the scene that is presented. The art of man 
never has, and never can, produce such a combination 
in the arrangement of the courses of vegetation. As 
the traveler stands at an elevation where pine-trees 
grow in the tropics, where a post-and-board fence in- 
closes a field of grain, and where a storm of snow and 
sleet had fallen only a few hours before, he can look 
down upon hills and plains, one below another, each 
one, in the descending scale, exhibiting more and more 
of tropical productions, until the regions of cocoa-nuts, 
and bananas, and sarsaparilla, and palms, and jalap, 
and vanilla, are reached in his perspective. This is a 
specimen chart, where all the climates and productions 
of the world are embraced within the scope of a single 
glance. 

It is time to re-enter the coach, and close all open- 
ings, for a dense fog is coming up from the sea, and has 
thrown so thick a curtain over the prospect, that the eye 
can not penetrate it. The long line of freight-wagons, 
that have served to mark the route that we have come, 
disappear, one after another : we ourselves are soon en- 
veloped in darkness. With the fog has come a chill 
and piercing air, and the pleasure of our mountain ride 
is now over. Still we move on and up with little hin- 
drance, as the road on this side of the " divide" is in 
good repair. But as we go down on the other side, we 
are impeded by freight-wagons held fast in the mud, 
and unable to move down-hill — it being easier to drag 
a wagon up an ascent than to draw it down-hill through 
stiff mud. An entirely different world now presents 
itself. We are in a fine grain-growing country. Well- 
cultivated fields stretch out as far as the eye can reach, 



82 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

with farm-houses scattered here and there, that strik- 
ingly remind the traveler of his northern home at this 
season of the year. 

The fences here are chiefly formed by rows of the 
maguey or century plant, growing at the side of a 
ditch. Here it reaches its greatest perfection, and adds 
materially to the fine appearance of the fields, and is 
seen every where upon the table-land. It grows wild 
upon the mountains, and springs up in uncultivated 
places, as a weed. It is cultivated, as a domestic plant, 
in little patches, and is also planted in fields of leagues 
in extent. It grows luxuriantly in the richest soils, 
and shows itself in those desert plains, where nothing 
else, except a few spears of stinted grass and chaparral 
can exist. 

The uses to which the maguey is applied are more 
numerous than the methods of its cultivation. When 
its immense leaf is pounded into a pulp, it forms a sub- 
stitute for both cloth and paper. The fibre of the leaf, 
when beaten and spun, forms a beautiful thread, resem- 
bling silk in its glossy texture, but which, when woven 
into a fabric, more resembles linen than silk. This 
thread is now, and ever has been, the sewing thread of 
the country. The leaf of the maguey, when crudely 
dressed and spun into a coarse thread, is woven into 
sail-cloth and sacking ; and from it is made the bagging 
in common use. The ropes made from it are of that 
kind called Manilla hemp. It is the best material in 
use for wrapping paper. When cut into coarse straws, 
it forms the brooms and whitewash-brushes of the coun- 
try; and, as a substitute for bristles, it is made into 
scrub-brushes ; and, finally, it supplies the place of hair- 
combs among the common people. 

The great value of the maguey plant arises from the 
amount of intoxicating liquid which it produces, which 



THE MAGUEY. PULQUE. 83 

is the chief source of intoxication among the common 
people of the table-land. There are two species of this 
plant cultivated. One of them flourishes in the desert 
portions of the country, from which an abominable liq- 
uor is distilled, called mescal, or mejical. The other 
is the flowering maguey, or century plant, of which so 
many fabulous stories are told in the United States. 
This is one of the wonders of the vegetable world. Un- 
til the plant has reached its tenth year, or thereabouts, 
there is no trace of a flower. In its fifteenth year, or 
thereabout, there are certain appearances which indicate 
that the central stem, or hampe, which sustains the 
flower, is about to form in the centre of the plant. If 
persons are not on the watch to cut out the heart at the 
proper time, the hampe shoots out, and grows to about 
the height of a telegraph post — for which I have often 
mistaken it — absorbing in its development the sap, 
which, when fermented, forms the intoxicating drink 
called pulque. The sprouting of the stalk takes place 
in November or December; but the beautiful cluster 
of flowers, for which it is so much admired, does not 
form at its top till February. In this last month, the 
monster leaf that envelops the hampe begins gradually 
to unfold itself, exposing to view a slender stalk, higher 
than a man on horseback, with arms extended. On 
this stalk grow the flowers. Such is the century plant 
— in botanical language, the Agava Americana. 

The juice of the maguey, in its unlermented state, is 
called honey-water. It is gathered from the central 
basin by cutting off a side-leaf and cutting out the 
heart, just before the sprouting of the hampe, for whose 
sustenance this juice is destined. The basin, thus 
formed, yields every day from four to seven quarts — 
according to the size and thriftiness of the plant — for a 
period of two or three months. The process of taking 



84 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

it out of the plant is a little curious. Into the end of a 
long gourd is inserted a cow's horn, bored at the point ; 
through this horn and into the gourd the juice is sucked 
up by applying the mouth to a hole in the opposite side 
of the gourd. From the gourd-shell the juice is emptied 
into a bottle formed from the skin of a hog, which still 
retains much of the form of the animal. To form this 
bottle of honey- water into pulque, all that is necessary 
is to put into it a little of the same material which has 
been laid aside till it became sour, which operates like 
yeast, causing the honey-water to ferment. 

As soon as the maguey juice in the hog-skin has fer- 
mented, it is pulque / and is readily sold for eight, and 
sometimes as high as twenty-five cents a quart, pro- 
ducing a very large revenue upon the cost of the plant. 
It is not ordinarily sold at wholesale ; but each maguey 
estate has its retail shops in town, from which the whole 
product of the estate is retailed out. One man, who has 
five of these shops in the city of Mexico, keeps his car- 
riage ; and is reckoned, among the magnates of the land, 
deriving from this source alone, it is said, $25,000 a 
year. The excise which Government derives from the 
sale of this liquor, which, in taste, resembles sour but- 
ter-milk, amounted to $817,739 in the year 1793. 

The traveler from the coast always arrives at Perote 
at a late hour; and as he leaves it again at an early 
hour next morning, he recollects nothing of it but its 
chilly night air, and the good supper which he was too 
cold to enjoy. But on his return from Mexico, he usu- 
ally has an hour of daylight, which he can improve in 
a survey of this small and cleanly town. Here the 
freight-wagons, with their twenty horses apiece, stop 
to recruit ; and the cargo-mules, that take this route, 
are gathered in the immense stable-yards, which give 
to the place the appearance of a collection of caravan- 



PEROTE. 85 

saries. The whitewash-brush has been industriously 
applied to the outside of the houses ; and though they 
are chiefly built of that frail material, dried mud, they 
present a very neat and tidy appearance, giving one a 
very correct idea of what may have been the appearance 
of one of the first class of Indian towns in the times of 
Cortez. 

A few rods to the north of the town stands the castle 
of San Carlos — a square fort, with a moat and glacis. 
It is built in the best style of fortifications of the last 
century, having been designed as a depository for silver, 
when, in consequence of the wars of Spain with mari- 
time nations, it was not deemed prudent to send it for- 
ward to the coast : it was much used for this purpose 
when the road below was blocked up, in the times of the 
insurrection, that began in the year 1810. At one time 
the accumulation here was so great that it is said to have 
amounted to 40,000,000 of silver dollars ; weighing 
about 1300 tons, or a little short of the whole silver ex- 
port of two years. This castle is now in a fine state 
of repair. It has a large garrison of lancers, and at the 
time of my visit was daily in expectation of the arrival 
of -Santa Anna. From this castle Santa Anna, in 1828, 
issued his jvronunciamiento against Pedraza. In this 
castle he was imprisoned by Rincon, in 1845, after his 
capture at Xico. From this castle he was banished by 
decree of the Mexican Congress ; and to it he was now 
returning to hold the supreme power in the State. 

At two o'clock in the morning we were aroused from 
our comfortable beds to take our places in the stage; 
and soon we were again upon the road. There is some- 
thing exceedingly attractive in the appearance of the 
skies upon this elevated table-land, 7692 feet above the 
ocean. The morning star-light is very beautiful. It is 
so much clearer, and the stars are therefore so much 



bb MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

brighter here than in the dense atmosphere where we 
inhabit, that the traveler, half chilled and sleeping, rouses 
himself to contemplate the brilliant sights above him. 
The brightest stars that he has watched from childhood 
Tip, are brighter now than ever. New stars have filled 
the voids in his celestial chart, and satellites are danc- 
ing round well-known planets. The North Star is still 
visible, now 19° above the horizon. The Dipper has 
dipped far down to the northward. The Southern Cross 
— that mysterious combination of five stars, that em- 
blem of the faith of Southern America, which only reaches 
full meridian at midnight prayers — is here 25° above 
the horizon, shining brilliantly. And then there are 
so many unknown southern stars, and so many unfamiliar 
constellations, that the short hours of night are well 
spent upon the driver's box. 

We have been gradually descending into what ap- 
pears to have once been the bottom of a salt lake. The 
ground is partially incrusted with a compound salt 
called tequisquita, is composed of equal proportions of 
muriate of soda, carbonate of soda, and insoluble metal 
(common earth) : this compound is used by the Mexi- 
can bakers and soap-boilers as a substitute for salt and 
soda. A stinted grass is here and there scattered in 
patches over the bad land, as these barren plains are 
called ; but the dry earth, which is rarely moistened for 
six months together, is covered with drifting sand, which 
is driven about by the hot winds of this desert. 

How great was the change from what we had passed ! 
The celestial chart, that we had been admiring with so 
much rapture, had gradually rolled itself up, and as the 
sun came out, we had a view of the dreariness around 
us. It was truly a bad land — a land of evil — even a land 
for wolves to prowl in, and where vultures watch for the 
carcasses of dying mules, and where robbers ply their 



AGED BEGGAR. 87 

calling with little fear of detection. Here, in the midst 
of all this dreariness, we saw a pretty lake, and beau- 
tiful scenery around it, that looked for a little while 
like an enchanted scene, and then vanished into air. 
We passed the hostelry of Tepeyagualco, where water 
is drawn from a fabulous depth, and soon came to that 
most celebrated spring of fresh water, situated upon the 
the boundary-line of the two departments of Vera Cruz 
and Puebla, and bearing the poetical name of "The 
Eye of Waters." But we were followed by a driving 
storm of sand all the way to Nopaluca, where we break- 
fasted at twelve o'clock. 

As we came out from breakfast we encountered an 
old beggar, whom I had often seen before at this 
place. He was so old that Time seemed to have forgot- 
ten him, and he too had forgotten Time. He could 
only reach his age by approximation : he recollected that 
his third son was earning day-wages when the decree 
came (in 1767) for the expulsion of the Jesuits. This 
would make the old beggar 130 years of age, if we call 
the son eighteen, and the father twenty-five at the time 
of his birth. Poor old man ! how much he has suffered 
from outliving his own kindred. One after another he 
has followed to the grave his children and his children's 
children, to the third and fourth generation, till now 
the lad that leads him by the hand, the only link that 
binds him to the race of the living, is of the sixth gen- 
eration. 

Toward evening, after we had passed the storm of 
dust, we came to the large village of Amosoque, which 
is the only town of any magnitude between Perote and 
Puebla. It is noted for its excellent spurs ; and was 
formerly much more noted as a haunt of robbers. From 
this village we were driven in a little more than an hour 
to the city of Puebla. 



CHAPTER YIII. 

Puebla — The Miracle of the Angels. — A City of Priests. — Marianna 
in Bronze. — The Vega of Puebla. — First View of the Pyramid of 
Cholula. — Modern Additions to it. — The View from its Top. — Quet- 
zalcoatl. — Cholula and Tlascala. — Cholula without the Poetry. — 
Indian Relics. 

Pueblo de los Angelos — the "Village of the Angels" 
— derives its name from a miracle that occurred during 
the building of its celebrated Cathedral. While its 
walls were going up, angels are said to have come 
down from heaven nightly, and laid on the walls the 
same amount of stone and mortar that the masons laid 
the day previous. It is, of course, a sacred city. Its 
people, particularly the women, are the most devout in 
all Mexico ; and, of course, the most profligate, as we 
shall show presently. It is a city of priests, and monks, 
and nuns, and friars, of every order, white and gray, 
black and greasy. As in all Spanish- American towns, 
the fronts of the houses are plastered and painted in 
fresco ; but the fresco painting has gone too long with- 
out renewing, and the town looks now, as it did two 
years ago, gray, streaked, and inhospitable. The un- 
washed houses are filled with unwashed people ; and 
the streets swarm with filthy beggars, and monks ask- 
ing for alms in the name of the most blessed Virgin. 
The streets, thanks to the male and female chain-gangs, 
are kept quite clean. But all else is dirty. If the 
angels, when they finished their work on the Cathedral, 
had left a whitewash brush behind them, they would 
have done the city a real service. The houses, inside 



CHARACTER OF THE POBLANAS. 91 

and out, and occupants too, and the reputation of its 
women from olden time, all need whitewashing. 

Perhaps I could not present a more deplorable picture 
of the moral condition of the ladies of Puebla, who are 
celebrated for being so very devout, "but not very vir- 
tuous," than by copying the following from Madame Cal- 
deron de la Barca's "Life in Mexico:" 

"Yesterday (Sunday), a great day here for visiting 
after mass is over. We had a concourse of Spaniards, 
all of whom seemed anxious to know whether or not I 
intended to wear a Poblana dress at the fancy ball, and 
seemed wonderfully interested about it. Two young 

ladies or women of Puebla, introduced by Sefior , 

came to proffer their services in giving me all the neces- 
sary particulars, and dressed the hair of Josefa, a little 
Mexican girl, to show me how it should be arranged; 
mentioned several things still wanting, and told me that 
every one was much pleased at the idea of my going in 
a Poblana dress. I was rather surprised that every one 
should trouble themselves about it. About twelve 
o'clock the President, in full uniform, attended by his 
aids-de-camp, paid me a visit, and sat about half an 
hour, very amiable as usual. Shortly after came more 
visits, and just as we had supposed they were all con- 
cluded, and we were going to dinner, we were told that 
the Secretary of State, the Ministers of War and of the 
Interior, and others, were in the drawing-room. And 
what do you think was the purport of their visit ? To 
adjure me by all that was most alarming, to discard 
the idea of making my appearance in a Poblana dress ! 
They assured us that Poblanas generally were femmes 
de rien, that they wore no stockings, and that the wife 
of the Spanish Minister should by no means assume, 
even for one evening, such a costume. I brought in 
my dresses, showed their length and their propriety. 



92 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

"but in vain ; and, in fact, as to their being in the right, 
there could he no doubt, and nothing but a kind motive 
could have induced them to take this trouble ; so I 
yielded with a good grace, and thanked the cabinet 
council for their timely warning, though fearing that, in 
this land of procrastination, it would be difficult to pro- 
cure another dress for the fancy ball. 

" They had scarcely gone, when Senor brought 

a message from several of the principal ladies here, 
whom we do not even know, and who had requested 
that, as a stranger, I should be informed of the reasons 
which rendered the Poblana dress objectionable in this 
country, especially on any public occasion like this ball. 
I was really thankful for my escape. 

" Just as I was dressing for dinner, a note was 
brought, marked reservada (private), the contents of 
which appeared to me more odd than pleasant. I have 
since heard, however, that the writer, Don Jose Arnaiz, 
is an old man, and a sort of privileged character, who 
interferes in every thing, whether it concerns him or 
not. I translate it for your benefit : 

" The dress of a Poblana is that of a woman of no 
character. The lady of the Spanish minister is a lady 
in every sense of the word. However much she may 
have compromised herself, she ought neither to go as a 
Poblana, nor in any other character but her own. So 

says to the Senor de C n, Jose* Arnaiz, who esteems 

him as much as possible." 

If priests were angels, the town would be rightly 
named, for it is a city of priests and religious / men 
who have consecrated their lives to begging, and count 
it a merit with God to live on charity. Convents of 
male and female religious abound, and, as the books 
tell us, $40,000,000, in the form of mortgages upon the 
fairest lands of the Yega of Puebla, is consecrated to 



MAKIANNA IN BRONZE. 93 

their support, under the supervision of the bishop. That 
smoking mountain, that outlet to infernal fires, is so 
close at hand as to suggest the idea that this whole 
mass of impurity and moral rottenness may have been 
vomited up from the bottomless pit, or that the fallen 
angels, in their way thitherward, tarried here to found 
a sacred city, see its Cathedral finished, and then led 
the way down the inclined plane to that brimstone con- 
vent where friars "most do congregate." 

In this city of dirty houses and dirty faces there is, 
nevertheless, some public spirit. Since I was last here 
a bronze equestrian statue has been set up in the Grand 
Plaza. It is a bronze woman, sitting quietly and easily 
upon a furious bronze horse. The horse is in a terri- 
ble state of excitement, but the woman is not alarmed 
in the least ; for she seems to be well aware that it is 
only make-believe passion, badly executed in bronze. 
Who could this woman be but Malinche, or Marianna, 
the Indian mistress of Cortez — a fit patroness of the 
women of Puebla. She was the first convert that Cor- 
tez ever made to Christianity; and her sort of Chris- 
tianity is not unusual in Mexico. That beautiful cone 
that rises so majestically out of the plain between Puebla 
and Tlascala bears the name of Malinche ; but as this 
name was applied to her paramour as well as to herself, 
an additional testimonial, in the form of a bronze statue, 
was deemed requisite ; for she is considered here as al- 
most a saint, and would be altogether such if she had 
not been the mother of children, and ended her career 
by getting married. That act of getting married — not 
her former life — rendered her unfit for a saint ; for how 
could an honest housewife be a saint ? She might have 
been the best of mothers and the best of wives, and 
have performed scrupulously the duties that God had 
assigned to her upon earth ; but she was lacking in ro- 



94 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

mance, in those aerial materials from which saints are 
made. Saints are made in damp, cold prison-cells, 
where, in the midst of self-inflicted misery, they see 
visions, dream dreams, and perform cures upon crowds 
as deluded as themselves. 

It was a delightful afternoon when I mounted my 
horse for a ride to Cholula. The wind of the day be- 
fore had driven away every vapor from this exceedingly 
transparent atmosphere, excepting only the cloud that 
was resting upon Popocatapetl, a little Tbelow its snow- 
covered summit. It was such weather as we have at 
" harvest home," and it was truly a " harvest home" 
throughout the whole Yega. Men were working in 
gangs in the different fields, gathering stalks, or husk- 
ing corn, or cutting grain, or plowing with a dozen 
plows in company, or harrowing, or putting in seed. 
It was harvest-time and seed-time together. The full 
green blade and the ripened grain stood in adjoining 
fields in this region of perpetual sunshine. As I rode 
along between carefully cultivated estates, I did not fail 
to catch the enthusiasm which groups of cheerful field- 
laborers always inspire in one whose happiest recollec- 
tions run back to the labors of the farm. Such are the 
varieties this country affords : three days ago I was 
enjoying the most delicate tropical fruits, which I 
plucked fresh from the trees ; yesterday I was travers- 
ing a salt desert covered with clouds of drifting sand; 
and I was now among grain-farms of a cold climate. 

Right before me, as I rode along, was a mass of trees, 
of ever-green foliage, presenting indistinctly the outline 
of a pyramid, which ran up to the height of about two 
hundred feet, and was crowned by an old stone church, 
and surmounted by a tall steeple. It was the most at- 
tractive object in the plain; it had such a look of uncul- 
tivated nature in the midst of grain-fields. It would 



PYEAMID OF CHOLULA. 



95 



have lost half its attractiveness had it been the stiff and 
clumsy thing which the pictures represent it to be. I 
had admired it in pictures from my childhood for what 
it was not; but I now admired it for what it really was 
— the finest Indian mound on this continent ; where the 
Indians buried the bravest of their braves, with bows 
and arrows, and a drinking cup, that they might not be 
unprovided for when they should arrive at the hunting- 
grounds of the Great Spirit. A little digging, a few 
years ago,* has furnished the evidence on which I base 
this assertion. This digging has destroyed the old 
monkish fiction to reinstate the truly Indian idea of the 
dead, and of the necessity of mounds for their burial. 




PYRAMID OF CHOLULA. 



By going round to the north side, I obtained a fine 
view of the modern improvements which have been con- 



* The living witnesses of the result of this excavation are still at 
Cholula, and the fact is mentioned in several American works ; my in- 
ference from the fact is the only novelty in the matter. 



96 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

stracted upon this Indian mound. I rode up a paved 
carriage-way into the church-yard that now occupies the 
top, and giving my horse to a squalid Indian imp who 
came out of the vestry, I went in and took a survey of 
the tawdry images through which God is now worshiped 
by the baptized descendants of the builders of this 
mound. My curiosity was soon gratified, and I re- 
turned to my place in the saddle. 

I followed the wall around the church-yard, stopping 
from point to point to look upon the vast map spread 
around on every side. Orizaba, which I first saw when 
150 miles out at sea as a mammoth sugar-loaf sitting 
upon a cloud, had at Jalapa, and at " the eye of wa- 
ters," different forms, while here it appeared to be joined 
with the Perote, forming the limit of the horizon toward 
the east. On the west were Popocatapetl, Iztaccihuatl, 
and Malinche ; while smaller mountains and hills seemed 
to complete the line of circumvallation, which gave to 
the elevated plain of Puebla the aspect of the bed of an 
exhausted lake, and to the isolated hills, rising here and 
there upon its surface, the appearance of having been 
islands when the waters covered the face of the land. 

The cloud was still resting upon Popocatapetl ; but 
its crest, far above the clouds, was in that region where, 
in the tropics, ice and snow lie undisturbed forever. 
The marks which it bore of having once been the smoke- 
pipe of one of Nature's furnaces, furnished us with the 
translation of its name — "The mountain with a smoking 
mouth." But that lake of fire has long since ceased to 
burn, and when the mountain had last emitted smoke 
was unknown to the oldest inhabitant. And that other 
mountain, Iztaccihuatl, or the "White Woman," lying 
so quietly and snug, in her covering of perpetual snow, 
at the side of the volcano, called up in the minds of the 
Indians the strange conceit of man and wife. There 



CHOLULA. 97 

were forests on the mountain sides and trees along the 
rivers covered with green, but all else looked dry and 
parched. Seldom, Indeed, has the eye of man ever rest- 
ed on a finer farming country than the great plain of 
Puebla, and seldom are lands seen better cultivated. 

Cholula was of old sacred to Quetzalcoatl, the " God 
of the Air," who, during his abode upon earth, taught 
mankind the use of metals, the practice of agriculture, 
and the arts of government. Translating myth into 
history, we may call him the great Aztec reformer. He 
is represented as a man of fair complexion with curling 
hair and flowing beard, very different from the type of 
the Aztecs. On his way from Mexico to the coast he 
remained for a while at Cholula, where a mound and 
temple was raised to his honor. 

This tradition made Cholula the Mecca of the Indian 
world; and with the merchants who came to attend the 
annual fair held at the base of the mound came also 
hosts of pilgrims, to offer sacrifice to the memory of that 
god who introduced flowers into the native worship, and 
discouraged cruelties and human sacrifices. 

At Cholula I was so fortunate as to procure one of the 
images of Quetzalcoatl, cut in stone, with curled hair and 
Caucasian features. I afterward verified the same by 
comparison with the great image found at Mexico, not 
without strong suspicions that both were counterfeits ; 
for in this country even the most sacred records are 
open to suspicion. Popular tradition and the most ap- 
proved authors will have it, that some stray white man 
had found his way among the Mexicans, and taught 
them empirically the calculations and divisions of time, 
and a very few of the arts of civilized life unknown to 
our Indians, and they venerated him as a god. But the 
probabilities are that the whole story is a myth, and for 
once the Inquisition was right in suppressing specula- 

E 



98 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

tion in relation to him, whether he was Saint Thomas 
or not. 

At the base of this pyramid, three hundred years ago, 
flourished the rich and opulent city of Cholula, which, 
according to Cortez,* contained 40,000 houses. He says 
that he counted from this spot 400 mosques,f and 400 
towers of other mosques — that the " exterior of this city 
is more beautiful than any in Spain." That is, as he 
and all other historians of the Conquest agree in repre- 
senting it, it was at the same time not only the Mecca 
and the commercial centre, but the centre of learning 
and refinement of Mexico. Here Indian philosophers 
met upon a common footing with Indian merchants. Its 
government, too, was republican ; and upon these very 
plains, three hundred years ago and more, flourished 
two powerful republics, Tlascala and Cholula. The first 
was the Lacedamion, the second the Athens of the In- 
dian world, and when united they had successfully re- 
sisted the armies of Montezuma and his Aztecs. But 
Aztec intrigue was too powerful for the American Athens, 
and the polished city of Cholula having been subdued 
by the same arts by which Philip of Macedon had won 
the sovereignty of Athens — a combination of intrigue 
and of arms — Tlascala was left alone to resist the whole 
force of the Aztec empire, now aided by the faithless 
Cholulans. Yet Tlascala was undismayed by the new 
combination brought to bear against her, and did not 
readily listen to the proposed alliance of Cortez. It 
was only after three terrible battles with Cortez, that 
Tlascala learned to appreciate the value of his alliance 
— an alliance which has conferred upon her perpetual 

* Cortez's " Letters," Folsom's translation, p. 71. 
t This word mosques Cortez constantly makes use of, apparently to 
keep before the people of Spain the idea that he was conducting a holy 



CHOLULA. 99 

freedom and a distinct political organization to the pres- 
ent time. 

This is the poetr y of the thing. Let tis give it a lit- 
tle matter-of-fact examination. 

The spot on which I stand, instead of being what it 
has often been represented to be, is but a shapeless mass 
of earth 205 feet high, occupying a village square of 
1310 feet. It is sufficiently wasted by time to give full 
scope to the imagination to fill out or restore it to al- 
most any form. One hundred years ago, some rich citi- 
zen constructed steps up its side, and protected the sides 
of his steps from falling earth by walls of adobe, or mud- 
brick ; and on the west side some adobe buttresses have 
been placed to keep the loose earth out of the village 
street. This is all of man's labor that is visible, except 
the work of the Indians in shaving away the hill which 
constitutes this pyramid. As for the great city of Cho- 
lula, it never had an existence ; for if there had been, 
only three hundred years ago, such a city here, com- 
posed of 40,000 houses, with 400 towers, besides the 
400 mosques, then some vestige or fragment of a fallen 
wall or a ruined tower would still be visible. But I 
searched in vain for the slightest evidence of former 
magnificence, and was driven to the unwelcome conclu- 
sion that the whole city was fabricated out of some 
miserable Indian village, inferior, perhaps, to the pres- 
ent town of one-story, whitewashed mud huts. 

My contemplations were broken in upon by a swarm 
of squalid women and children from the church vestry, 
importuning me to buy relics in clay, which might an- 
swer the double purpose of images of saints or of hea- 
then gods, according to the taste of the purchaser. But 
when they found me impracticable, they brought out 
their greatest curiosity — a flint arrow-head, such as used 
to be plowed up in scores near the place where I was 



100 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

born. Thoroughly disgusted with the sight of this 
Acropolis, with this ancient Athens of mud, I turned 
my horse's head toward Puebla; and as I rode on, I 
met scores of these modern Athenians trotting home- 
ward, bareheaded and barefooted, carrying "papooses" 
on their backs, while their faces, forms, and hair, and 
ragged dress, were the very counterpart of the Indians 
of North America. 

The Indians of Puebla have long enjoyed the distin- 
guished honor of being the governing men, while the 
white inhabitants were ineligible to a seat in the city 
councils. This city was formerly an Indian village, 
bearing the indigestible name of Cuetlaxcapen, or 
" Snake in the Water ;" but, in 1530, the Vice-King 
Mendoza established here a Spanish colony, but left 
the original government unchanged ; so that, down to 
the independence, the city administration was conducted 
by an Indian alcalde, assisted by a council of four In- 
dians. Notwithstanding the anomalous form of its gov- 
ernment, Puebla has ever been a great manufacturing 
town, and at this day consumes a quantity of cotton 
equal to some of our large manufacturing cities. 






CHAPTER IX. 

A Ride to Popocatapetl. — The Village of Atlizco. — The old Man of 
Atlizco and the Inquisition. — A novel Mode of Escape. — An aveng- 
ing Ghost. — The Vice-King Ravillagigedo. — The Court of the Vice- 
King and the Inquisition. — Ascent of Popocatapetl. — How a Par- 
ty perished by Night. — The Crater and the House in it. — Descent 
into the Crater. — The Interior. — The Workmen in the Volcano. — 
The View from Popocatapetl. — The first White that climbed Popo- 
catapetl. — The Story of Corchado. — Corchado converts the Volcano 
into a Sulphur-mine. 

One of the first objects of interest in Mexico is the 
volcano of Popocatapetl. A stage runs from Puebla to 
Atlizco, but beyond that village the visitor must travel 
upon horseback. Atlizco is worthy of a special notice 
from its situation in a most fertile valley, and its pecul- 
iar location at the base of a conical hill. This hill, like 
every attractive locality in Mexico, is the scene of ro- 
mantic traditions of the common people. From many, 
I select one illustration of the state of society in the 
times of the vice-kings. 

There once was, the tradition runs in this village, an 
old hidalgo who possessed a plantation in the immediate 
neighborhood of the town. His family consisted of him- 
self and two daughters ; and he was rich. Upon a cer- 
tain time, one of those strolling monks, with whom the 
country abounds, chanced to offer an indignity to one of 
the daughters, and the old man chanced to return the in- 
dignity by inflicting upon the monk such a beating as 
never poor friar had yet received in the vice-kingdom — 
such a one as the feelings of an outraged father alone 
could justify. This was not the end of the matter ; it 



102 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

was only the beginning of evil to the old man, as he 
well knew, for he had laid his hands upon one of the 
consecrated — one who had received the sacrament of 
" Holy Orders ;" and, above all, he was rich enough to 
tempt the cupidity of the Inquisition, which always 
watched with jealous care over the orthodoxy of those 
whose estates, when confiscated, would add to "the 
greater glory of God," that is, to the treasury of the 
" Holy Office." 

Guilty or not guilty, the old man had but one mode 
of escape, and that was by avoiding an arrest. To ef- 
fect this object he resorted to a novel expedient. As 
soon as he heard that his accuser had started for Mexi- 
co, it was given out that the old man had suddenly died. 
A circumstance by no means thought remarkable, when it 
became known that he had assaulted a priest. As he had 
not yet been accused, his neighbors ventured to come to 
his funeral ; and a coffin, with his name and age marked 
upon it, was decently buried in holy ground. The fune- 
ral fees, too, were secured before the estate was pounced 
upon by the familiars of the Inquisition. The daugh- 
ters put on the deepest mourning, and hid themselves 
from the public gaze, among their relatives ; for they had 
not only to endure the loss of home and estates, but 
were to be shunned as the accursed of God — the children 
of one dying while under the accusation of sacrilege. As 
for the Inquisition, its officials did not care to investigate 
the question of the decease, for it had reaped all the ben- 
efit it might hope for from his conviction — " The Holy 
Office" had become his heir. 

Strange appearances and stranger noises after a time 
were heard about the cave that is said to be in the top 
of the hill of Atlizco, and sometimes a ghost had been 
seen wandering about the hill by certain benighted vil- 
lagers ; and one time, when the accusing monk was re- 



THE OLD MAN OF ATLIZCO. 103 

turning rather later than usual from a drunken revel, this 
ghost, who had now become the town-talk, chanced to 
fall in with him, and to give him such a beating as few 
living men could inflict, and then disappeared. Still 
there was no earthquake, and the sun rose and set as 
though no injury had been done to a priest. 

Time wore its slow course along, without any impor- 
tant incident occurring in this matter, until the reputation 
of the new Virey, Ravillagigedo, reached Atlizco. Short- 
ly thereafter there appeared at the vice-royal palace in 
the city of Mexico an old man, who related in a private 
audience the story of his griefs and of his misfortunes, 
and insisted that, in striking " the Lord's priest," he had 
no intention of committing an act of impiety, but that 
the feelings of a father had overcome him in an unguard- 
ed moment, and induced him to avenge an attempt made 
to dishonor his daughter. The story of the old man 
touched the Virey, who had a manly heart wrapped up 
in a forbidding exterior. But it was a delicate under- 
taking even for a vice-king to attempt to wrest a rich 
estate out of the clutches of the "Holy Office" without 
himself being suspected of heresy, or of disloyalty to the 
Church. Yet Ravillagigedo was never at a loss for ex- 
pedients when justice was to be done or the oppressed 
relieved. The best advice, however, that he could give 
the old man was to hide himself again, and to send his 
daughters to Mexico to accuse the monk. 

Upon a set day, the vice-king was found arrayed in 
state, surrounded by a council of Inquisitors, before 
whom the daughters, in the deepest mourning, presented 
themselves as the accusers of the profligate monk. They 
stated, with an artless simplicity which could not fail to 
convince, the story of the wrongs the monk had done 
them. The Inquisitors, sitting in the presence of the 
incorruptible Virey, could not, for very shame, do other- 



104 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

wise than declare unanimously that the monk, and not 
the old man, was worthy of the censure of the Church. 

" Then let us wipe away the stain that rests upon the 
fair fame of these ladies as daughters of one dying sus- 
pected, by decreeing their father's innocence," said the 
Virey. 

This being assented to, the record of the old man's in- 
nocence was made up, and, when duly attested by the 
Inquisitors, was handed to the daughters. A door was 
at this moment opened, and there entered into the august 
presence a gray-headed old man, to whom the daughters 
presented the record. The old man, when he had re- 
ceived the record, advanced, and, bowing humbly, made 
confession of his fault. It was a bitter pill for the " Holy 
Office" thus to be tricked into the performance of a com- 
mon act of justice, and in this way to lose a valuable 
estate. From this time onward, it is said that Inquisi- 
tors were never known to hold court with a Virey. 

At Atlizco horses must be procured for the journey 
up the mountain, for beyond this point there is no car- 
riage-road. I here follow the verbal narrative of Mr. 
Frank Kellott, the artist of whom I have already made 
mention, as I dared not venture where bleeding of the 
lungs is produced by the rarity of the atmosphere and 
by the fatigue. 

" The company consisted of Mr. Corchado, the pro- 
prietor, Mr. Munez, a neighboring gentleman, three la- 
dies, and myself, all on horseback. Sixteen Indians 
had been sent forward on foot early in the morning, with 
all the conveniences to make the trip a safe and agree- 
able one. The party went cheerfully up the mule-road 
that leads to the mountain rancho of Zacopalco, one of 
the highest inhabited points upon our globe. The soil 
upon the mountain, composed of volcanic mud, yields 
such rich grasses, that almost at the upper edge of the 



ASCENT OF POPOCATAPETL. 105 

timber there is a milk-house (lecheria), where a cattle- 
herd, if caught out at night, may find a shelter. The 
inner man being well cared for at the rancho, we jour- 
neyed on, following the path that led us through a tan- 
gled mass of trees and plants, and among barrancas 
whose sides were covered with pines. The timber grew 
shorter and more stunted as we proceeded, until, at the 
height of 12,544 feet, the pines entirely disappeared. A 
little farther on, at an elevation of 12,692 feet, we were 
at the limit of vegetation. After journeying a league or 
so over the yielding sand mixed with sharp stones, twelve 
of our Indians and our horses gave out. From this 
point for a little way farther, our party proceeded on 
foot, with the four remaining servants. 

" We had gone only a little way farther when two 
of our fair companions also gave out,- and we sent them 
back to the rancho with the returning horses and the 
fatigued servants, for there was now no time for delay, 
if we intended to reach the summit that day. The third 
lady went bravely on, and would probably have enjoyed 
the honor of being the first woman that had ever ascend- 
ed Popocatapetl, had it not been for the unfortunate ar- 
rangement she had made in her wardrobe. Instead of 
putting on the pantaloons, or bloomers, she had added 
extra skirts by way of precaution against the cold ; so 
that when she had climbed about 3000 feet over volcanic 
sand and loose stones, she gave out from fatigue and the 
bruises she had received in her numerous falls. It was 
a painful effort even for those of us who had no skirts 
to impede us to get on ; and it was imprudent for her 
to proceed farther, for the icicles would be in her way 
as much as the sand and stones ; for these icicles were 
like spikes projecting upward from the rocks, and be- 
tween which we should have to place our feet and pick 
our way as best we could without falling upon them. 



106 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

In this state of things there was no alternative, and we 
were reluctantly obliged to dissuade her from farther ef- 
fort, and to consign her over to the kind attentions of 
three more of our Indians, who had given out, to con- 
duct her down the mountain. 

! " Unfortunately, one of the last three Indians sent 
"back had in his pocket all the chocolate, an article al- 
most indispensable to the comfort of a party climbing a 
high mountain, and, unconscious of our loss, we contin- 
ued our way until it was too late to remedy this loss. 
The basaltic rock which we had now reached was cover- 
ed with the icicles which I have described, and we found 
no little difficulty in placing our feet between them, and 
guiding ourselves with the iron-pointed sticks which had 
been furnished us ; while the dizziness caused by look- 
ing back upon the world we had left behind added to 
our troubles. 

" Mr. Corchado, to draw off our attention from our 
own hardships, related to us the story of the death of 
six of his workmen, who undertook to make the journey 
down the mountain by night. Each of them had a load 
of stolen brimstone on his head. The day after this 
rash and criminal attempt, their dead bodies were found 
in such a situation as to indicate plainly the manner of 
their death. Stiffened with the intense cold, and im- 
peded by their heavy burdens, they had stumbled in the 
darkness, and had fallen upon the sharp ice. One had 
his cheek pierced, and the others had divers wounds and 
bruises marked upon them as they lay frozen in death. 
The story of these unfortunates was not calculated to 
inspire us with very pleasant reflections, in case the 
weather should change while we were on the mountain. 

"We climbed on, having reached the basaltic rock 
at an elevation of 16,805 feet, and with exhausting la- 
bor we traveled upon it until toward evening, when we 



A NIGHT UPON THE SUMMIT. 107 

came to that immense yawning abyss, the crater. The 
mouth was about three miles in circumference, of a very 
irregular form. Into this we entered, and soon arrived 
at the house which was to be our lodging for the night. 
This house was a curiosity in its way ; as it was not 
built like any other house, and could not be, on account 
of the rarity of the atmosphere at this elevation of 17,125 
feet, and the impossibility of obtaining sufficient oxygen, 
in a closed room, to feed combustion. It was therefore 
built in the form of a miniature volcano. There was an 
outside and an inside wall, of a circular form, the out- 
side wall sloping inwardly, and the inside wall, which 
rested on pillars, sloping outwardly, until it met the out- 
side wall. The fire was built in the open court, in the 
centre of the building, and the party sat under the arches 
and warmed themselves. The night that we were there, 
the perverse smoke took the same direction as the heat- 
ed air, and filled the whole inside to suffocation, so that 
our condition was most disagreeable, notwithstanding 
the arrangements that Mr. Corchado had made in his 
own apartment for the comfort of his guests, for the re- 
flection of the sun on the snow had thrown a film over 
our eyes, in spite of our green vails. Our stomachs were 
nauseated at this giddy height, and, though we had al- 
most every other kind of eatable and drinkable, our ap- 
petites craved only chocolate, which we could not obtain. 
Our heads were dizzy, and our limbs were weary, and 
we lay down in a dense smoke to try to sleep. 

" Morning came to our relief, and with it the film had 
passed from our eyes. We looked up to the top of the 
mountain above us, and then down into that fearful abyss 
into which we were soon to descend. We could eat no 
breakfast, and could drink no coffee, and so we were 
soon ready for our day's journey. We followed a nar- 
row footpath until we reached a shelf, where we were 



108 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

seated in a skid, and let down "by a windlass 500 feet or 
so, to a landing-place, from which we clambered down- 
ward to a second windlass and a second skid, which was 
the most fearful of all, "because we were dangling about 
without any thing to steady ourselves, as we descended 
before the mouth of one of those yawning caverns, which 
are called the ' breathing-holes' of the crater. They are 
so called from the fresh air and horrid sounds that con- 
tinually issue from them. But we shut our eyes and 
clung fast to the rope, as we whirled round and round 
in mid air, until we reached another landing-place about 
500 feet lower. From this point we clambered down, as 
best we could, until we came among the men digging up 
cinders, from which sulphur, in the form of brimstone, 
Is made. 

"We took no measurements within the crater, and 
beights and distances here can only be given by approxi- 
mation. We only know that all things are on a scale 
so vast that old Pluto might here have forged new thun- 
der-bolts, and Milton's Satan might have here found the 
material for his sulphurous bed. All was strange, and 
wild, and frightful. 

"We crawled into several of the ' breathing holes,' but 
nothing was there except darkness visible. The sides 
and bottom were, for the most part, polished by the molten 
mass, which had cooled in passing through them ; and 
if it had not been for the ropes around our waist, we 
should have slipped and fallen we knew not whither. 
We almost fancied that, in the moving currents of air, 
we heard the wailings of the lost in the great sulphurous 
lake below. The stones we threw in were lost to sound 
unless they hit upon a projecting rock, and fell from shelf 
to shelf. The deep darkness was fearful to contemplate. 
The abyss looked as though it might be the mouth of 
the bottomless pit. What must have been the effect 



DESCENT INTO THE CRATER. 109 

when each one of these ' breathing holes' was vomiting 
up liquid fire and sulphur into the basin in which we 
stood? How immeasurable must be that lake whose 
overflowings fill such cavities as this ! It is when stand- 
ing in such a place that we get the full force of the fig- 
ures used by the Scriptures in illustrating the condition 
of the souls that have perished forever. 

"Let us turn from great to smaller things — to wit- 
ness the labors of the men who work, and eat, and often 
sleep in the volcano. Some are digging sulphur and 
placing it in baskets, while others are waiting to carry it 
upon their heads up the side of the crater. Others, 
again, out of our sight far up the mountain, are working 
at the oven, when the weather is clear, and there is no 
cloud between them and the sun, as it is only in the 
finest weather that men can work upon the top, or carry 
burdens to the hacienda. When the weather is fine, all 
the works are in full operation, and good profits are re- 
alized by furnishing brimstone for the manufacture of 
sulphuric acid. 

" We are at the top once more ; and now that our eye- 
sight, which we lost in climbing the mountain, is restored 
to us, we will take a view of the lower world. Looking 
toward the west, every object glows in the brightness 
of the rising sun, except where the mountain casts its 
vast shadow even across the valley of Toluca. How 
strangely diminished now are all familiar objects that 
are visible! The pureness of the medium through which 
things are seen presents distant objects with great dis- 
tinctness, but it will not present them in their natural 
size, for it can not change the angle of vision. The vil- 
lages upon the table-land were apparently pigmy vil- 
lages, inhabited by pigmy men and pigmy women, sur- 
rounded with pigmy cattle, and garrisoned by pigmy 
soldiery. It is, by an optical illusion, Liliput in real 



110 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

life. Had the English satirist placed himself where we 
now stood, he would have more than realized the picture 
which his fancy painted. Pie might have seen the mar- 
shaled hosts of Liliput marching to the beat of drum, in 
the proud array of war. 

"If you wish to see all the sights, you must walk 
around the mountain, and look down its steepest side, 
where there is no table-land, into the ' hot country.' 
The distance is so vast, the descent so steep, that an 
inexperienced climber suffers from dizziness. If you 
climb to the very summit, 250 feet above the mouth of 
the crater, you will find more surface about you. But 
it is a point where few can desire to remain long, or to 
visit it a second time." 

In Cortez's letters to the Emperor we read as follows : 
"As for sulphur, I have already made mention to your 
Majesty of a mountain in this province from which 
smoke issues ; out of it sulphur has been taken by a 
Spaniard, who descended seventy or eighty fathoms by 
means of a rope attached to his body below his arms; 
from which source we have been enabled to obtain suf- 
ficient supplies, although it is attended with danger. It 
is hoped that it will not be necessary for us to resort 
[again] to this means of procuring it." .... "As the 
Indians told us that it was dangerous to ascend, and 
fatal to those who made the attempt, I caused several 
Spaniards to undertake it, and examine the character of 
the summit. At the time they went up, so much smoke 
proceeded from it, accompanied by noises, that they 
were either unable or afraid to reach its mouth. After- 
ward I sent up some other Spaniards, who made two 
attempts, and finally reached the aperture of the mount- 
ain whence the smoke issued, which was two bow-shots 
wide, and about three fourths of a league in circumfer- 
ence, where they discovered some sulphur which the 



THE SULPHUR MINE. Ill 

smoke deposited."* (Bernal Diaz says that the crater 
was perfectly round, a mile in diameter. — Vol. i. p. 186.) 
Daring one of their visits they heard a tremendous noise, 
followed by smoke, when they made haste to descend; 
but before they reached the middle of the mountain there 
fell around them a heavy shower of stones, from which 
they were in no little danger. 

In or about the year 1850, Corchado, an active and 
enterprising white man, had become a favorite with the 
Indians at the foot of the mountain, who proposed to 
him that he should accompany them when they again 
undertook one of their expeditions into the volcano, 
which of late had been very frequent. This was a 
proposition that exactly accorded with his adventurous 
character. Accordingly, on an appointed day, he ap- 
peared at the rendezvous, with a rope, a piece of sail- 
cloth, and an iron bar. Thus provided, the party, which 
was a large one, started up the mountain, but one by 
one they gave out, until only Corchado and a single 
Indian arrived at the mouth of the crater. Here, un- 
fortunately, Corchado fainted from the loss of blood and 
fatigue ; and the Indian, not knowing what better to 
do, covered him with the sail-cloth, and then started 
down the mountain for assistance. In a short time he 
revived under the sail-cloth, and from his dangerous po- 
sition he drew himself into the volcano, that he might 
not perish from cold outside. He descended as far as 
the shelf, and, looking over into the abyss, he found 
himself so refreshed by the atmosphere of the volcano 
that he brought down the bar, sail-cloth, and rope, de- 
termining to pass the approaching night at the bottom 
of the volcano. When he had fixed his bar and rope, 

* This must have been the great fissure, and not the crater. I see 
no objection to this statement; for in this Cortez had no motive to 
falsify, and it is the ordinary appearance of an active volcano. 



112 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

the relieving party arrived, and all descended, one by 
one, upon the rope to a point where they passed the 
night in safety. 

Corchado, on his return, gathered up some of the sco- 
ria and carried it to Puebla, when it was found to con- 
tain so large a percentage of sulphur as to warrant its 
' denouncement' as a sulphur-mine. Capital was pro- 
cured at Puebla sufficient to set up the rude apparatus 
we have already described, by means of which a very 
handsome profit on the adventure was realized. But, 
owing to a lawsuit, in which the affair was at that time 
(1852) involved, no effort had yet been made to pierce 
the mountain, or to explore a passage through some 
vent or fissure. A good path had been made up the 
mountain, and in the month of May it was considered 
quite a safe undertaking to visit these sulphur-works. 



CHAPTER X. 

Texas. — Battle of Madina. — First Introduction of Americans into Tex- 
as. — Usurpation of Bustamente. — Texas owed no Allegiance to the 
Usurper. — The good Faith of the United States in the Acquisition of 
Louisiana and Texas. — Santa Anna pronounces against Bustamente. 
— Santa Anna in Texas. — A Mexican's Denunciation of the Texan 
War. — His Idea of our Revolution. — He complains of our grasp- 
ing Spirit. — The right of the United States to occupy unsettled Ter- 
ritory. — A few more Pronunciamientos of Santa Anna. — The Ad- 
ventures of Santa Anna to the present Date. 

We must resume again the narrative of historical 
events, in order better to set forth the condition of the 
country through which we are traveling. 

Texas is a turning-point in the history of Mexico. 
Captain Don Alonzo de Leon, in the year 1689,* by com- 
mand of the Vice-King of New Spain, took formal pos- 
session of Texas, in the name of His Most Catholic Ma- 
jesty of Spain. Afterward a few military and mission- 
ary settlements were commenced, with indifferent suc- 
cess, as the Indians were of a less docile character than 
those of the southern provinces. They were ever res- 
tive under the yoke of spiritual taskmasters, so that the 
feeble missions and presidios had only a sickly existence 
down to the time of the breaking out of the civil wars 
of Mexico. 

We have already noticed the statement that, in the 
year 1819, a Mexican general routed at the River Madi- 
na a party of 3000 men, who were on their way to join 
the Mexican insurgents. The above number is some- 
what improbable ; say there were 500, which would be 

* Breva Rescna Histdrica, hy Gen. Tornel. Mexico, 1852. P. 135. 



114 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION.. 

about as many as could well be mustered at that early 
period for a filibustering expedition at New Orleans. 

In 1820 Moses Austin applied to the Spanish authori- 
ties, and obtained from them the right to settle a certain 
number of families in Texas. He died soon after, and 
his son Stephen obtained a confirmation of the grant, or, 
rather, a new grant, from the authorities established at 
Mexico under the Federal Constitution of 1824. Under 
that constitution Texas was annexed to Coahuila, and, 
together with it, was formed into the united state of Co- 
ahuila and Texas. From the authorities of this state 
divers other Americans obtained grants of land under 
the provisions of the colonization law of the Mexican 
Congress of the year 1824. From this time all things 
went smoothly on, and the grantees were busily engaged 
in introducing the number of families which were stipu- 
lated for in the said law, and in the grants made under 
it, when the Spanish armada landed at Tampico. 

In consequence of the great dangers threatening the 
country, Congress had conferred dictatorial powers upon 
the President of the Republic, Vincente Guerrero. By 
virtue of his dictatorship, he had invested the Vice-pres- 
ident of the Republic, Bustamente, with the command 
of an army of reserve, which he established at Jalapa. 
As soon as the Spanish army had capitulated to Santa 
Anna, Bustamente put forth a jpronunciamiento, and, 
marching to the city of Mexico, he deposed the Presi- 
dent, whom he afterward caused to be cruelly put to 
death. Having now, by means of a successful military 
insurrection, possessed himself of the executive power, 
he proceeded by violent means to overturn, one by one, 
the governments of the individual states. In this war 
against the states he was also successful, except in the 
most distant one, that of Coahuila and Texas. 

Texas clearly owed no allegiance to the usurper Bus- 



DOWNFALL OF BUSTAMENTE. 115 

tarn en te. It was an independent state in all respects, 
excepting those powers it had conceded to the general 
government by adopting the Federal Constitution. The 
subversion of this Constitution reinstated Texas as an 
independent republic. It owed no farther allegiance to 
Mexico. Texas might at once have applied for admis- 
sion into our Union, or have asked to be annexed to any- 
other foreign state, pleading not only her inherent right 
to do so, but the excessive cruelties that Bustamente in- 
flicted on those state authorities that opposed his usur- 
pations. 

The learned and eloquent General Tornel, distinguish- 
ed alike as a statesman and a soldier, from whose popu- 
lar history we have below made a brief extract, in plead- 
ing the cause of his country, charges bad faith against 
the United States in the acquisition of both Louisiana 
and Texas, but in both arguments he fails to make out 
a case. By the treaty of San Ildefonso in 1800, France 
acquired an imperfect title to Louisiana ; by the treaty 
of Paris in 1803, she conveyed all her title to the United 
States. But, before the United States would pay over 
any money on account of the treaty of 1803, she required 
Spain to confirm the treaty of San Ildefonso by putting 
France into the actual possession of Louisiana. This 
being done, and not till it was done, did the United 
States pay over the $15,000,000 stipulated as the pur- 
chase money. The dispute with Spain about boundaries 
was settled by the treaty for the acquisition of Florida, in 
1819, which established boundaries that were confirmed 
in a subsequent treaty with Mexico. Thus far, certain- 
ly, there was no breach of faith. 

On the night of January 3d, 1832, the garrison of 
Vera Cruz jwo?iounced against the usurping government 
of Bustamente, which was then suffering dreadfully from 
the want of funds. A delegation was sent the same 



116 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

night to Santa Anna, who had been in retirement at his 
estate of Manga de Clavo since the murder of his friend, 
President Guerrero. This fourth insurrection was pros- 
ecuted with varying success for several months, but was 
finally terminated by the capitulation of Bustamente at 
Puebla, and the recalling ofPedraza from banishment in 
the United States, to serve out the few months that re- 
mained of his term of office as President. 

In 1832 Santa Anna was elected successor to Pedra- 
za as President of the Federal Republic of Mexico. Tex- 
as had now of right the option of returning into the fam- 
ily of Mexican States, or of maintaining her separate 
existence ; but she was under no obligation to return, 
for, the confederacy having been once broken up, it was 
optional with the only member that had not submitted 
to the usurper to re-enter this unreliable family, or to 
continue outside. This election was not long open ; for, 
by the jpronunciamiento of Toluca (1835), the Federal 
Constitution was again abolished, and Santa Anna be- 
came dictator in fact, if not in name. The clergy were 
at the bottom of this last revolution, and they demand- 
ed, as the price of their support, the extirpation of her- 
esy from the territory of the Republic. This meant the 
indiscriminate slaughter of all Texans. Santa Anna, 
who, in all his previous wars, had never shown a dispo- 
sition to be cruel to the vanquished, was so dazzled with 
the prospects before him as to be willing to make the 
slaughter of the Alamo and of Fannin's division an offer- 
ing to a priesthood who were plotting for the restoration 
of the Inquisition. The battle of San Jacinto was, in 
its consequences, more disastrous to the designs of the 
ecclesiastical party than even to Santa Anna himself. 

Let me stop in my narrative of events to translate a 
Mexican's eloquent denunciation of the Anglo-Saxon 
race. It is from the pen of General Tornel, a most un- 



MEXICAN VIEW OF THE ANGLO-SAXONS. 117 

compromising enemy of that race and of its religion. 
Thus he opens his account of the Texan difficulty : 

"In order to understand what we to-day (1852) are, 
and what we to-day value, it is indispensable to discover, 
and to perpetuate the history of one of the greatest scan- 
dals of the age — all of its antecedents, all of its conse- 
quences, all that can aid in coming to knowledge of this 
greatest act of injustice of which the Mexican nation has 
been the victim. 

" Those who cross the sea change their skies, but not 
their nature. The Anglo-Saxons abandoned their coun- 
try from physical and moral necessities, and on account 
of their political and religious quarrels. Transporting 
themselves to the virgin forests of America, they brought 
with them the characteristics of Northmen ; they were 
distinguished for sobriety, laboriousness, and industry ; 
for ardor in their enterprises ; for constancy, and for that 
spirit of adventure which subjugates all by the right of 
conquest. They leveled all obstacles by the vigor of 
their arm and the sweat of their brow, and from their 
successes has arisen the hope of acquiring every thing 
by the inspiration of their talents and the force of their 
genius. 

" The English, of whom John Cabot was a compatriot, 
came by the northern route [to America], and discovered 
an immense country, whose rivers are the grandest, whose 
forests appear to be antediluvian, whose lakes would be 
called seas in Europe ; with harbors on an extensive 
coast which rival the greatest in the world. It has a 
soil suited to every purpose of agriculture. In short, it 
has facilities for all enterprises, and for raising the ma- 
terial of a productive commerce sufficient to establish 
advantageous relations with the Old World, and for cre- 
ating an independent society ; for supplying its necessi- 
ties ; for making its condition enviable ; for rivaling the 



118 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

power, the influence, and the destinies of its parent 
country. 

"The country which they discovered they found 
scarcely inhabited, although here and there wandered 
some tribes without social organization, without gov- 
ernment, without the power of concentration, even to the 
extent which numbers give to savages. They [the col- 
onists] early learned that they could establish their do- 
minion without resistance, and that they could extend 
it as far as they could open the country with the ax of 
the active colonist, who considered himself the heir of 
undiscovered wealth, which would result from an inevit- 
able destiny. The colonies which were established along 
the coast, and those which were formed in the interior, 
increased, as increases the gentle rill in its onward course 
by uniting with other rills and with rivers, until, becom- 
ing one vast torrent, it precipitates itself into the ocean. 
The colonies of Tyre, of Carthage, or Rome were never 
comparable with the Anglo-American colonies, who ap- 
propriated to themselves, in less than a century, regions 
more extended than the half of Europe. 

" The observer of the providential destiny of the An- 
glo-Saxon race in America notices that the emancipation 
of the thirteen American colonies, which constituted so 
many states and an independent nation, instead of being 
the result of the alleged political grievances, was rather 
the impulsive force of expansion, which encountered in- 
superable obstacles while the states were colonies sub- 
ordinate to a European nation. They were retarded in 
their advances by relations and compromises with other 
nations. The Anglo-Saxon, when translated to the wilds 
of America, needed only a stopping-place in order to 
found a peculiar and exclusive polity, which should en- 
able him to march ever onward in his aggressions and 
usurping institutions. 



WEAKNESS OF THE SPANISH TITLE. 119 

"The United States of America lost no time in mak- 
ing themselves powerful ; a nation rich in its industry, 
enviable in its commerce, respectable in its social organi- 
zation, which are so favorable to the advancement of the 
condition of man. When the government had regulated, 
with great prudence and wisdom, the interior system of 
the states, it placed itself upon the watch for the com- 
promised circumstances of embarrassed European states 
that possessed colonies on the American continent. Some 
of these colonies were contiguous to the limits which the 
United States had acquired definitely by the treaty of 
peace of 1783. In order to augment, at the expense of 
her neighbors, her possessions, already immense, and not 
yet well populated, she set about acquiring territory by 
astuteness, by cunning, by violence, and also by justifi- 
able means, when such were available. Spain first, and 
Mexico afterward, have been her victims ; and to-day 
these rich and powerful states display the spoils, for such 
they are in reality, which they have wrested from us. 
Such are the people that already rival those nations of 
Europe whose territories are the most extensive, and 
whose commerce is spread over all the seas." 

My limits will not permit me to follow General Tornel 
through his statement of the manner in which Louis- 
iana, Florida, and Texas were acquired, and to notice 
his complaints of the injustice committed by the Amer- 
icans in all these acquisitions. He loses sight of the 
fact that Spain had no title to her possessions in Amer- 
ica but that of discovery, and that very doubtful claim 
had not, in a period of 300 years, been strengthened by 
actual settlement. Three or four dilapidated mud forts, 
and as many more feeble missions, constituted the sum 
total of the Spanish possession of Texas ; and settle- 
ments scarcely worthy of the name in the other northern 
departments constituted all the title that Spain could 



120 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

put forth to those countries ; while the right of Mexico 
was as much weaker, as Mexico was a weaker power 
than Spain, and morally incapable of settling the disput- 
ed territory. The claim of the United States was the 
necessity for land in which to settle her population, which 
was so rapidly augmenting by foreign immigration. 
Once in ten years she requires a portion of the wild land 
nominally belonging to Mexico, and once in ten years 
she must take it. 

In 1836, while Santa Anna was a prisoner in Texas, 
Bustamente, then in banishment in Europe, was elected 
President by the same party that had chosen Santa 
Anna as Dictator. In 1838, the government having in- 
curred the hostility of France, Yera Cruz was blockaded 
for several months, during which time a night foray was 
made into the town by a party of French sailors, headed 
by the Prince de Joinville. On their return, they were 
pursued by Santa Anna to the Mole, where they stopped 
farther pursuit by discharging a cannon, which deprived 
Santa Anna of one of his legs, and effectually wiped out 
the recollections of his unfortunate Texan campaign. In 
1841, the government being no longer able to raise 
funds at two per cent, a month, the Minister of War, Va- 
lencia, pronounced against Bustamente in the citadel of 
Mexico. The result was, that Santa Anna was again 
elevated to supreme power, according to the plan of Ta- 
cubaya, and the interpretation he put on that plan. In 
1843 a slight change was made in the Constitution, but 
he remained in power until 1845, when, having left the 
capital to put down the insurrection of Paredes, Con- 
gress declared against him. Herrera was appointed Pres- 
ident, and Santa Anna was imprisoned for a while in 
the castle of Perote, and finally banished from the coun- 
try. In 1847 he was recalled by the Federal party, 
with the consent of President Polk, and became the 



SANTA ANNA. 121 

chief support of the war, notwithstanding his totally in- 
adequate means for organizing a successful defense. 
When the defense could no longer be protracted, he left 
the city by night, and retired to the West Indies, and 
afterward to Carthagena, where he remained until he 
was recalled in 1852, and again restored to supreme au- 
thority. 

We may sum up the politico-military life of Santa 
Anna by saying that he has been engaged in eight pro- 
nwiciamientos. Five of these have been made by him- 
self; three by others, for his benefit. Twice he has 
been chosen President by the Federal party of the Fed- 
eral Republic of Mexico. Three times he has been 
made President by the Central, or Ecclesiastical party. 
He has been twice banished from Mexico, and each time 
recalled again and placed at the head of affairs. He has 
twice been taken prisoner, when his captors held long 
consultations upon the propriety of putting him to death. 
He has, in turn, been the candidate of all parties, and has 
served all parties faithfully in turn, but most faithfully 
of all he has served himself. Actively engaged through 
life as a politician and a soldier, he has found time to re- 
adjust the whole complicated system of Mexican laws, 
and, in a series of volumes of autocratic decrees, he has 
drawn from that chaotic mass a new system of jurispru- 
dence, that will stand as a monument of his genius as 
long as the Mexican nation shall continue. 

F 



CHAPTER XL 

From Puebla to Mexico. — The Dread of Robbers. — The Escort. — Tlas- 
cala. — The Exaggerations of Corte'z and Bernal l)iaz. — The Truth 
about Tlascala. — The Advantages of Tlascala to Cortez. — Who was 
Bernal Diaz. — Who wrote his History. — First View of Mexico. 

At early twilight, two stage-loads of passengers, drawn 
rapidly by twelve wild horses through the now deserted 
streets of Puebla, approached the gate that opened out 
upon the road to Mexico. The rattle of the wheels and 
the clatter of so many hoofs had awakened the gate- 
keeper, and at our approach the ponderous portals that 
inclosed the city "by night flew open, and away we whirl- 
ed out into the beautiful vega of Puebla. 

In times of civil disorder, this is a fine field for rob- 
bers to ply their vocation in ; and even now, when all 
was quiet, there was no little apprehension of a visit from 
these sovereigns of the road. The passengers had no- 
ticed my unmistakable Anglo-Saxon name, as it was 
called at the stage-door, and, when I had taken my seat, 
an elegant, long Colt's revolver was passed to me by a 
passenger in full uniform. Such is one of the advant- 
ages that a traveler enjoys who belongs to a race of men 
of acknowledged courage — an advantage that enabled me 
to travel alone across the continent without encumber- 
ing myself with a weapon ; for, where all supposed mc 
fully armed, and skilled in the use of weapons by in- 
stinct, I found it convenient to go unarmed. Upon the 
present occasion, I did not wish to raise a smile of in- 
credulity by protesting that I had never fired a pistol in 
my life, so I quietly consented to play the part of hero. 



EEPUBLIC OF TLASCALA. 123 

By displaying my weapon carelessly in my hand when 
we stopped to take coffee at Saint Martin's, I procured 
a seat upon the outside, which had been refused me at 
Puebla. 

Our escort consisted of a "body of six lancers, who, 
standing at the roadside, saluted us as we passed, and 
then rode after us at the top of their speed. Poor fel- 
lows ! they found it hard riding to keep up with the 
coach. It was some consolation for them to see a man 
seated on the top of the stage with a Colt's pistol, even 
if he did not know how to use it, and for once they rode 
out their beat without getting frightened at their shad- 
ows. As the robbers were as great cowards as them- 
selves, whether the man on the box was really a fire-eater 
or not, it answered the same purpose. These stage- 
guards are heroes in their way ; they always come when 
the road appears the safest, and never fail to ask for 
charity, but invariably leave you just as the coach ap- 
proaches a thicket. A few days ago, this guard caught 
a fellow on the road whom they believed to be a robber, 
and hung him with a pocket-handkerchief. 

We are now passing the borders of that famous In- 
dian republic, of the high table-land, which shut out des- 
potism by a lofty wall,* and was so completely isolated 
in the times of Montezuma that its people could obtain 
no foreign products, not even cotton or salt ;f whose food 
was the maize which they cultivated, and the game which 
they caught upon the snow-capped mountains ; whose 
clothing was made from the maguey, and from skins of 
animals taken in the chase ; a people whose government 
was a council of elders, which was presided over by an 
hereditary chief; whose political institutions have been 

* Folsom's Letters of Cortez, p. 49. 

t Bernal Diaz. Lockhart's translation. London, 1844. Vol. i. 
p. 157. 



124 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

the study and admiration of the learned of many lands. 
That is, in plain English, they were an ordinary tribe 
of North American savages, obtaining their living, as 
other Indians did then and do now, by the cultivation 
of Indian corn and hunting, having the same crude form 
of government that is common to all the savage tribes 
of North America. They gloried in their savage no- 
tions of independence, and submitted only to the merest 
shadow of authority. They had not yet reached that 
point of social organization at which the loose govern- 
ment of savages gives way to the despotism of the next 
stage of advancement, which we shall call barbarism. 
The difference between the Tlascalans and the Aztecs 
was the same difference that exists between the North 
American savages, who live in underground wigwams,* 
and the barbarous tribes of the interior of Africa, that 
live in cities of mud huts above the ground, and who 
yield a slavish obedience to a half-naked emperor, who 
sits or squats upon an ox-hide in a mud palace, exercis- 
ing the power of life and death, according to his moment- 
ary caprice, upon thousands of trembling slaves. The 
concentrated power and wealth of a whole tribe is in 
single hands, and is made available for conquest and for 
the sensual enjoyment of a single individual. Savages 
can only act in concert when all are agreed, hence coun- 
cils are their governing power, and the orator has as 
much influence among them as the successful warrior; 
but when they have advanced a step, and power has be- 
come concentrated, the orator becomes silent, and the 
war-chief is the government. 

I had read with avidity the histories of Mexico, and 
gave to them implicit credence, until I stood upon the 
Indian mound of Cholula, and searched in vain for the 

* "We buried our dead in one of the subterranean dAvellings." — 
Diaz, vol. i. p. 152. 



CORTEZ AND BERNAL DIAZ. 125 

least vestige of that magnificent city of 40,000 houses, 
which, only 300 years ago, was in the height of its pros- 
perity ; and though it is not in the power of man, in the 
space of a thousand years, wholly to obliterate the traces 
of a great city, yet not a vestige of the Cholula of Cor- 
tez can now be found. As I followed up the investi- 
gation, I soon discovered that not a vestige of any of 
the cities that entered into the alliance with Cortez can 
now be found. Not a vestige exists even of the old city 
of Mexico, except the calendar and sacrificial stones, of 
which I shall speak hereafter. 

Cortez says that a dry stone wall, nine feet high, in- 
closed Tlascala from mountain to mountain, through 
which he entered between overlapping semicircles of the 
wall. He says that he was attacked first by an army 
of 6000 Indians, then by an army of 100,000 on one 
day, and on the next by 149,000. He says farther, " I 
attacked another place, which was so large that it con- 
tained, according to an examination I caused to be made, 
more than 20,000 houses." Of the capital of Tlascala, 
he says, "It is larger than Granada, and much stronger, 
and contains as many fine houses and a much larger 
population than that city did at the time of its capture." 

A comparison of the statements of Bernal Diaz and 
those of Cortez will cast some discredit upon the narra- 
tive of the former. The stout old chronicler cuts down 
the 100,000 Indians in the second battle to 50,000, and 
makes no mention of the third great action, in which 
149,000 Indians were said hy Cortez to have been en- 
gaged. Here is another comparison : 

"There is," says Cortez, "in this city [Tlascala], a 
market, in which every day 30,000 people are engaged 
in buying and selling, besides many other merchants 
who are scattered about the city. The market contains 
a great variety of articles, both of food and clothing, and 



126 MEXICO AND ITS HELIGION. 

all kinds of shoes for the feet, jewels of gold, and silver, 
and precious stones, and ornaments of feathers ; all as 
well arranged as they possibly can be found in any pub- 
lic square in the world."* 

Now see the difference between this great Munchau- 
sen and his professed apologist and companion, the writer 
of Bernal Diaz, who was familiar with the suppressed 
manuscript of Las Casas, and makes quotations from it. 
"The elder Xicotencotl," says Bernal Diaz, "now in- 
formed Cortez that it was the general wish of the in- 
habitants to make him a present, if agreeable to him. 
Cortez answered that he should at all times be most 
happy to receive one ; they accordingly spread some 
mats on the floor, and over them a few cloaks, upon 
which they arranged five or six pieces of gold, a few 
articles of trifling value, and several parcels of manufac- 
tured nequen — altogether a poor present, and not worth 
twenty pesos (dollars). The caziques, on presenting 
these things to Cortez, said to him, ' Malinche ! we can 
easily imagine that you will not exactly experience mucli 
joy on receiving a present of such wretched things as 
these ; but we have told you before that we are poor — 
possessing neither gold nor -other riches, as the deceitful 
Mexicans, with their present monarch, Montezuma, have, 
by degrees, despoiled us of every thing we had. Do 
not look to the small value of these things, but accept 
them in all kindness, and as coming from your faithful 
friends and servants.' These presents were, at the same 
time, accompanied by a quantity of provisions."! 

Thus, according to Cortez, the Tlascalans dwelt in 
cities rivaling the most polished and commercial cities 
of Europe ; according to Diaz, they were so poor that 
they were unable to make a present worth twenty dol- 
lars! Cortez gives a view of "a large wall of dry stone, 

* Letters, p. 61. t Bernal Diaz, vol. i. p. 1 70. 



THE TRUTH ABOUT TLASCALA. 127 

about nine feet in height, which extends across the val- 
ley from one mountain to the other : it was twenty feet 
in thickness, surmounted throughout its whole extent by 
a breastwork a foot and a half thick, to enable them to 
fight from the top of the wall." Diaz says, "We came 
to an enormous intrenchment, built so strongly of stone, 
lime, and a kind of hard bitumen, that it would only 
have been possible to break it down by means of pick- 
axes."* Such a wall, or the vestiges of it, would last for 
thousands of years ; for it is not in the destructive pow- 
er of man wholly to obliterate it, and yet I have been ut- 
terly unable to find even a ruin, and I verily believe the 
whole of this Chinese wall is a fiction. 

Tlascala is an Indian reservation of an oval shape, 
sixty-nine miles long by forty-two miles wide. Its cli- 
mate is cold. Its soil is not remarkably good. It has 
had its independent government since the time of Cortez. 
Its means of subsistence have been increased, and ex- 
tensive manufactories have been established. The only 
enumeration ever made of its inhabitants was in 1793, 
when it was found to contain 51,177 souls. In the ex- 
travagant official estimate of last year, its population is 
set down at 80,171.f Cortez says that Tlascala con- 
tained a population of 500,000 inhabitants, according to 
a report made by his orders. We have here our his- 
torians within metes and bounds, between mountains and 
stone walls ; a perfect non-intercourse established with 
all the world ; all foreign means of supply cut off, and 
the Indians dependent for subsistence upon their own 
rude cultivation of maize. My readers may call me ex- 
travagant if I should say that Tlascala probably con- 
tained about 10,000 inhabitants in the time of Cortez, 
and could therefore, in an emergency, produce 1000 war- 
riors. A greater number than this would be contrary 

* Vol. i. p. 144. t Collection de Leyes, 1853, p. 184. 



128 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

to the laws of population. I might here stop and call 
hard names, but it is not my purpose to ""bring a rail- 
ing accusation" against any. My only duty is to place 
evidence before the reader, and then let him judge how 
much reliance is to be placed upon any historical state- 
ments that have been trimmed and modified to suit the 
purposes of the Spanish Inquisition. 

The quick wit of Cortez early discovered that Tlascala 
was a great natural fortress, and that he could make it 
the centre and base of his operations in the wars he was 
contemplating against the different Indian tribes of the 
table-land. The hatred borne against the Mexicans by 
the Tlascalans assured him of their co-operation against 
Montezuma. Hence the Tlascalans were especially fa- 
vored. They shared with him in all the perils of his en- 
terprise, and in the plunder gathered from the conquered 
tribes ; for with them rested the question whether he 
should succeed, and be hailed as the hero of a holy war, 
or should be branded as a buccaneer, robber, and en- 
slaver. And when, in course of time, the Indian ele- 
ment became the ruling power, curses loud and deep were 
muttered against the enslaver of the Indians, and the 
Tlascalans came in for their share of imprecations. 

But who was Bernal Diaz ? This would be a strange 
question to ask in a country where there was liberty of 
speech and liberty of the press, but in Spain the censor- 
ship was not only repressive, but it was " suggestive. " 
It not only suppressed the writings of authors, but com- 
pelled them to father productions that were the very op- 
posite of those they wished to publish. Take the case 
of poor Sahagun, who wrote a refutation of the historian 
of the conquest, under the pretense of giving the Indian 
account of that event : when his book was finally allow- 
ed to see the light, after a delay of many years, it was 
found that his own account of the conquest had been sup- 
pressed, and the regular Spanish account had been sub- 



CENSOIISHIP ,OF HISTORICAL BOOKS. 129 

stituted. Of Las Casas's "Apology for the Indians,"* 
which had occupied thirty-two years of his life, that part 
only was allowed to appear which treated of Saint Do- 
mingo. But his refutation of the histories of the con- 
quest of Mexico is wholly suppressed. To have proved 
the Conquistadors a gang of unprincipled buccaneers 
would have spoiled a Holy War, which was just what 
the Inquisition would not allow to go before the world. 
To the little work of Boturini on Mexico there are ap- 
pended, 1. The declaration of his faith in the Roman 
Catholic Church in the most unequivocal terms. 2. The 
license of the Jesuit father. 3. The license of an In- 
quisitor. 4. The license of the Judge of the Supreme 
Council of the Indias. 5. The license of the Hoyal 
Council of the Indias. 6. The approbation of the "qual- 
ificator" of the Inquisition, who was a barefooted Car- 
melite monk. 7. The license of the Royal Council of 
Castile. Beyond all this, the writer must be a person 
in holy orders, and be a person of sufficient influence to 
obtain the favorable notice of all these bodies, who were 
instinctively hostile to the diffusion of all information, 
particularly in regard to the New World. Nor was this 
the end of the difficulty ; the license of any one of these 
officials could be revoked at pleasure, and, when repub- 
lished, the work had to be re-" vised.' 1 '' Even as late as 
the year 1825, a Spanish standard author could not be 
republished without expurgation. \ With such facts be- 
fore us, it is safe to declare that not a single statement of 
fact that affected either the interests of the kino; or the 
Church was ever published in Spain or her colonies 
during the three hundred years of the existence of the 
Inquisition ; but every thing published was modified to 
suit the wishes of the censors, without any regard to the 
sentiments of the putative author. 

* Lord Kingsborough,Yo\. vi. p. 265. f A Year in Spain, by an American. 

F* 



130 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

But who was Bernal Diaz ? How came lie to be fa- 
miliar with the writings of Las Casas that never saw the 
light ? Had he access to the secret archives of the con- 
vent ? He refers to the account of Las Casas as follows : 

" These [the slaughters at Cholula] are, among others, 
those abominable monstrosities which the Bishop of Chi- 
apas, Las Casas, can find no end in enumerating. But 
he is wrong when he asserts that we gave the Cholulans 
the above-mentioned chastisement without any provoca- 
tion, and merely for pastime."* The history of Diaz is 
among the standard literary productions of that age, and 
is a very picture of candor and simplicity. On every 
page there are such evident efforts at truthfulness as to 
raise a suspicion that something more than a simple 
narrative was the object of writing this book fifty years 
after the conquest. By supposing the author to be only 
sixteen years old when he came to America, Lockhart 
makes him only seventy years of age when he wrote the 
work. But if we suppose him to have been of a reason- 
able age when he began his adventures, he must have 
been between eighty and ninety years old when this book 
is alleged to have been written. Gomara had overdone 
the matter in the superhuman achievements which he 
had ascribed to Cortez, while Las Casas had proved the 
conqueror and his party to have been a gang of cruel 
monsters. Now, something had to be done to avert the 
odium that was beginning to attach to this crusade 
against the enemies of the Church. In Spain, where a 
padlock was upon every man's mouth, and where each 
one buried his suspicions in the most secret recesses of 
his heart, and trembled lest, even in his dreams, a 
thought of impiety might reach the ear of a familiar, his- 
tory could always be made to conform to the interests of 
the Church. 

* Bernal Diaz, vol. i. p. 207. 



WHO WROTE BEKNAL DIAZ? 131 

Since the records of the Spanish Inquisition have be- 
come the property of the public, and the manner in 
which the facts of history were trifled with is now un- 
derstood, it is a question more easily asked than an- 
swered, Who wrote such and such a book ? 

Who, then, wrote the history of Bernal Diaz ? We 
have seen that it cuts down the monstrous exaggerations 
of Cortez more than a half, yet Ave shall see that the 
statements of Diaz are still incredible. It is a very relig- 
ious book, as the Spaniards understand the word relig- 
ion, and reflects great credit on the Church. But, with 
the slight evidence we have presented, no one would 
charge the work with being altogether a fiction, and Ber- 
nal Diaz a myth. All that can be said is, that we are 
left in that state of uncertainty in which every one finds 
himself who looks into a record that was within the con- 
trol of the Inquisitorial censors. 

Our stage-ride has been forgotten in discussing his- 
torical questions ; and while we have been dwelling 
upon Cortez and Bernal Diaz, we have crossed the plain, 
and been climbing the heights of Bio Frio, and now we 
begin to catch glances of the valley and of the city of Mexi- 
co — a city and valley so renowned in history and tradition, 
that it seems more like a city of the Old World than a 
town in the interior of the continent that Columbus dis- 
covered. Truly it is an old city. It was an old city 
before Columbus was born — an old city in a new world. 
It is one of the links that binds the present age to ages 
long past and almost forgotten — a city where the pres- 
ent and the past are strangely mingled together. In its 
streets are " penitents," wandering, in sackcloth and san- 
dals, with a downcast look and a rope for self-castigation, 
among soldiers in new French uniforms and ladies in 
the latest Paris fashions. This is not the time for a 
favorable view of the valley from this point. To see it 
in its full glory, we must look upon it at sunrise. 



CHAPTER XII. 

Acapulco. — The Advantages of a Western Voyage to India. — The great 
annual Fair of Acapulco. — The Village and Harbor of Acapulco. — 
The War of Santa Anna and Alvarez. — The Retreat. — Traveling 
alone and unarmed. — The Peregrino Pass. — Quiricua and Cretinism. 
— Chilpanzingo. — An ill-clad Judge. — Iguala. — Alpayaca. — Cuarna- 
vaca. 

Let us now make a journey in another direction — from 
Acapulco northward to the city of Mexico — the route 
that the East India trade used to follow. But, first of 
all, let us discourse a little time about this port of Aca- 
pulco, once so famous upon the South Seas. It was not 
discovered when Cortez built, in Colima, the vessels that 
went to search for a northwest passage ; but when 
they had returned from their fruitless search, they an- 
chored in the mountain-girt harbor of Acapulco. The 
discoveries of the celebrated navigator, Magellan, fixed 
the commercial character and importance of this sea-port. 
He had sailed through the straits that bear his name, 
and coasted northwardly as far as the trades. From this 
port he bore away to the Spice Islands, discovering on 
the voyage the Philippine Islands, where the city of Ma- 
nilla was founded. By this voyage he demonstrated 
that the advantages of a route across the Pacific were so 
superior to a voyage around Cape Horn, as to justify the 
expense of a land transit from Acapulco to Vera Cruz, 
and reshipment to Spain. Now that the Panama Rail- 
road is made, this demonstration may prove advanta- 
geous to other nations. 

The practical advantage of this discovery was the es- 




m 







i 



! 









"'" / 



ACAPULCO. 135 

tablishment of the annual Manilla galleon, in which was 
sent out 1,000,000 silver dollars to purchase Oriental 
products for the consumption of Spain and all her Amer- 
ican colonies. In this galleon sailed the friars that went 
forth to the spiritual conquest of India. In it sailed 
Spanish soldiers, who followed hard after the priests, to 
add the temporal to the spiritual subjugation of Oriental 
empires. To this harbor the galleon returned, freighted 
with the rich merchandise of China, Japan, and the Spice 
Islands. When the arrival of the galleon was announced, 
traders hastened from every quarter of New Spain to at- 
tend the annual fair. Little vessels from down the coast 
came to get their share of the mammoth cargo. The 
king's officers came to look after the royal revenue ; and 
caravans of mules were summoned to transport the Span- 
ish portion of the freight to Vera Cruz. Thus, for a 
short time, the population of this village was swollen, 
from 4000 to 9000, which fell off again when the galleon 
took her departure. 

Such was the commercial condition of the town of 
Acapulco down to the time of the independence. From 
this time it was lost to commerce, until it was made a 
half-way house on the voyage to California. The town 
lies upon the narrow intervale between the hills and the 
harbor. It is built of the frailest material, and is de- 
stroyed about once in ten years by an earthquake. 

The castle of San Diego stands upon the high bank, 
and, though commanding the entrance to the harbor, is 
itself commanded by the surrounding high lands, and has 
so often been taken by assault during the last thirty 
years as to be considered untenable. The harbor ap- 
pears like a nest scooped out of the mountains, into and 
out of which the tide ebbs and flows through a double 
channel riven by an earthquake in the solid rock. Tra- 
dition says it once had another entrance, but that an 



136 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

earthquake closed it up and opened the present channel. 
There is still another opening in the sharp mountain 
ridge that incloses it from the sea, but this opening, dug 
by the labor of man, at a point opposite the entrance 
of the harbor, was to let the cool sea-breeze in upon one 
of the hottest and most unhealthy places upon the con- 
tinent. Such, in substance, is and was the little city of 
Acapulco, the seat and focus of the Oriental commerce 
of New Spain and of all the Spanish empire. 

Santa Anna and Alvarez are the only remaining in- 
surrectionary chiefs in Mexico. When I was last in the 
capital, Santa Anna was reigning supreme in the vice- 
royal palace, and Alvarez was supreme at Iztla, the cap- 
ital of the Department of Guerrero, of which Acapulco is 
the sea-port town. The two chiefs had been long hos- 
tile to each other, but a gold mine, discovered upon the 
bank of the River Mescala, was " the straw that broke 
the camel's back." Alvarez had not been consulted in 
the disposition made of it. Santa Anna felt himself 
powerful in his newly-equipped army of 23,000 men, the 
finest army that had ever been seen in Mexico — an army 
which he was maintaining at a daily cost of $23,000. 
Alvarez was equally strong in his mountain fastnesses, 
in the affections of the Pintos, or " Spotted People," and, 
above all, in the poverty of his country. Santa Anna 
took the initiative by sending 2000 men to garrison Ac- 
apulco, and Alvarez committed the first open hostility, 
by closing the passes against them. Then the cam- 
paign began. Santa Anna traveled at the head of his 
grand army. During his unobstructed march to Aca- 
pulco there occurred a great many victories, for victories 
are indigenous products of Mexico. The siege of the 
castle of San Diego de Acapulco was the first of the 
long list of unsuccessful sieges that distinguished the 
year 1854. The besiegers dared not risk an assault, 



WAR OF SANTA ANNA AND ALVAKEZ. 137 

and they had not sufficient material for conducting a 
regular siege. For some weeks the opposing forces re- 
mained looking at each other, while almost the only blood 
spilled was by the clouds of musquitoes that hovered over 
the camp of the grand army, and by the swarms of fleas 
that infested the castle. It might well be called a 
bloody war, for few escaped without bearing the scars of 
wounds and bloodletting. 

While the besieging army was itself thus almost de- 
voured, and had devoured all the eatables of the Pintos, 
symptoms of rebellion showed themselves at Mexico, to 
suppress which required the presence of Santa Anna. 
The generals of his army thought that they also might 
render more important services to the country in the 
streets of Mexico than in this inglorious war with 
bloody insects ! A retreat was therefore sounded, and 
the country of the Pintos was evacuated. Thereupon 
rushed forth the little garrison from the clutches of the 
devouring insects, and issued a heroic proclamation, 
which was enough to frighten a whole army. 

It is time to commence my itinerary across the mount- 
ains northward to the city of Mexico. My journey was 
by the same mule-path that Oriental merchants have 
climbed for centuries, as is shown by the vestiges of 
that strange race of which Humboldt speaks — an inter- 
mixture of Manillamen and Chinamen with the native 
race. 

My traveling companion, who had a pistol, left me 
and went back at the first venta, or station-house, four 
leagues from Acapulco. At Lemones, the second sta- 
tion-house, four leagues farther, I passed the night sleep- 
ing upon a table on the veranda. This is the common 
lodging-place for solitary travelers in Mexico. Here I 
formed my first acquaintance with the venta pig, who 
considers himself the peculiar friend of the traveling 



138 MEXICO AND ITS BELIGION. 

public. All the advances made by my new acquaint- 
ance at this first interview were occasional tugs at the 
blanket during the night, and divers unsuccessful at- 
tempts to turn the table over. At Alta, two stages far- 
ther on, the pig ensconced himself on a mat with the 
children, while he gave me no farther annoyance than 
an occasional visit, and thrusting of his nose into the 
hammock where I slept. 

It was still dark when I left Alta in order to clear 
the Peregrino Pass and reach Tierra Colorado that day. 
In a few hours I gained the top of the pass, and sat 
down to take a survey of the zigzag way up which my 
old horse had climbed, and of the extensive region of 
hill and mountain country before me. It is difficult to 
believe that over this slight mule-path all the Spanish 
commerce of India has passed, and cargoes of silver 
dollars, amounting to hundreds of millions, during a 
period of three hundred years. Over this pass armies 
have continued to advance and to retreat with one uni- 
form result : if the army is a large one, it is starved out 
of the country; if it is a small one, it is destroyed. 
Hunger devours the large armies; the Pintos devour 
the little ones. All around was now as quiet and soli- 
tary as the grave. There were no signs to indicate that 
this spot had been the scene of so much life and conten- 
tion. The prospect was a delightful one, and I could 
have enjoyed it much longer had I not been assailed 
by that common enemy, that has assailed every general 
and colonel that has crossed this pass — an empty stom- 
ach ; so that I and my old horse did our very best to 
reach the ford of the Papagalla, where there was a pre- 
sumptive possibility that eatables might be found. I 
found entertainment for beast at the ford, but no food 
for his rider until we reached Tierra Colorado. 

Here prevails not only that harmless cutaneous affec- 



AN ILL-CLAD JUDGE. 139 

tion, the Quiricua, which causes people to appear spot- 
ted or painted (Pintos), but also Cretinism, the much 
more formidable disease so prevalent among the mount- 
ains of Switzerland. 

This town is also remembered as the scene of a bloody 
battle. General Garay, who had lost his way the clay 
before, had here come up, and we jogged along together; 
but as a Mexican general and escort are a doubtful pro- 
tection to an unarmed man, if there is any real danger 
on the road, a prudent traveler will shake them off and 
travel on alone. 

We passed Buena Yista, the fine sugar estate of M. 
Comonfort, and Aquaguisotla, and slept at Mazatlan, and 
the next day arrived at the famous city of Chilpanzingo, 
or City of the Bravos, the centre and focus of the insur- 
rection in the southern provinces. Here, in the public 
square or plaza, in front of a church built by Cortez, 
there was a grand bull-fight, or rather ox-fight, in which 
great efforts were made to infuse some life into a dozen 
stupid cattle. These efforts were attended with very 
indifferent success. A deep harranca extends to the 
Mescala, the largest river in Southern Mexico, across 
which we passed on a raft of gourds, propelled by two 
naked Indians, who swam across, each holding in his 
right hand a corner of the raft. 

The next night, after dark, I arrived at a little village, 
and turned into an open caravansary. The old man of 
the establishment was very kind, and offered me a mat 
to lie on, but he had no corn for my horse. After 
making some inquiries that were a little unpleasant for 
a man who was traveling without a passport to answer, 
he said he would procure for me some corn from the 
alcalde. This village magistrate, who, in the absence 
of the "Judge of First Instance," is ex officio a judge, 
was an enormous negro, over six feet in height, whose 



140 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

dignity was not certainly dependent upon his official 
robes, for a single napkin constituted his whole apparel. 
He sat upon an ox-skin, which did duty for the wool- 
sack — the very personification of the majesty of the law, 
with curled wig, and hide as "black as the gown of the 
Lord Chief Justice, with the advantage that both were 
natural. This was the second negro I had yet seen in 
the country. The other held a commission as captain 
in the army, and was in the escort of General Garay. 

I had a hard day's ride to reach the city of Iguala in 
time to witness the celebration of the independence, 
which was proclaimed here in 1821. The celebration, 
for the most part, consisted in eating and drinking from 
booths placed around the central square of the town. 
As I had little time to spare, I hurried on, and soon 
came to the Puente de Iztla, the carriage-road, that is 
finished thus far southward from the city of Mexico. 

I started early next morning upon my journey. Dur- 
ing the greater part of the day the road led through a 
continuous corn-field, and toward evening we came to 
the pretty Indian village of Alpayuca, so neat and well- 
ordered that it might have passed for one of the mis- 
sionary Indian villages of our northern Indians, were it 
not for the fine old Catholic church, which must have 
cost in its construction, centuries ago, fifty times the 
value of the present village, without including the cost 
of the bronze railing, brought from China in the pros- 
perous days of the Manilla Company. 

Not stopping to examine the ruins of great antiquity 
near this place, I rode on six leagues farther, when I ar- 
rived at the venerable city of Cuarnavaca, the place se- 
lected by Cortez as the finest spot in all New Spain. 
This was bestowed upon him, at his own request, by 
the Emperor Charles V. as a residence. It merits to 
this day the distinction that has been given to it as one 



CUARNAVACA. 141 

of the finest spots on earth. It stands close under the 
shadow of the huge mountains that shield it from the 
northern blast, and it is at the same time protected from 
the extreme heat of the tropics by its elevation of 3000 
feet. The immense church edifices here proclaim the 
munificence of Cortez, while the garden of Laborde, open 
to the world, shows with what elegant taste he squan- 
dered his three several fortunes accumulated in mining. 
The combination of a fine day in a voluptuous climate, 
the beautiful scenery, and the happy faces of the people 
celebrating New Year's day in the shade of the orange- 
trees, made an impression upon a traveler not easily for- 
gotten. 

I was too near the city of Mexico to remain long here, 
and I rode on, up the zigzag way that leads over the 
mountain rim of the Valley of Mexico. I was not for- 
tunate enough to accomplish the journey from city to 
city in a single day, and, from necessity, had to pass the 
night at the half-way house, upon the summit of the 
mountain, 10,000 feet above the sea. A poor Hunga- 
rian, who had been detained here like myself, came and 
laid his blankets with mine, and then we lay down, and 
chattered and shivered together until the morning. Such 
a night as this detracts somewhat from the enjoyments 
of this otherwise pleasant journey ; but when I got a 
morning view of the valley and city of Mexico from the 
Cross of the " Marquis of the Valley," the sufferings of 
the chilly night were soon forgotten. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

California. — Pearl Fisheries. — Missions. — Indian Marriages. — Villages. 
— Precious Metals. — The Conquest of California compared with that 
of Mexico. — Upper California under the Spaniards. — Mexican Con- 
quest of California in 1825. — The March. — The Conquest. — Califor- 
nia under the Mexicans. — American Conquest. — Sinews of foreign 
Wars. — A Protestant and religious War. — Early Settlers compared. 
— Mexico in the Heyday of Prosperity. — Rich Costume of the Wom- 
en. — Superstitious Worship. — When I first saw California. — Lawyers 
without Laws. — A primitive Court. — A Territorial Judge in San 
Francisco. — Mistaken Philanthropy. — Mexican Side of the Picture. 
— Great Alms. — City of Mexico overwhelmed by a Water-spout. — 
The Superiority of Californians. 

I CAN not enter the valley of Mexico, and there dis- 
cuss the various subjects that present themselves, with- 
out first gathering from California the data that will elu- 
cidate the condition of a country abounding in precious 
metals. 

There is a striking dissimilarity between the two Cali- 
fornias. The American State of California is as cele- 
brated for its fertility as for its mineral wealth. Penin- 
sular California, on the other hand, is not distinguished 
for its minerals, nor remarkable for its fertility. With 
the sea washing it on either side, it is a country of drought 
and barrenness. It is like a neutral ground between the 
two rainy seasons. To the north of it, the winter is the 
season of abundant rains, with dry summers. To the 
south of it, the summer rains are heavy and continuous, 
without any showers in winter. Thus, lying between 
the opposite climates, it rarely enjoys the refreshing rains 
of either. Its back-bone is not a continuation of the 
rich Sierra Nevada, but of the coast range, which is 



MEXICAN CALIFORNIA. 143 

poor in minerals. The Mexican estimates set down the 
population as amounting to 12,000,* but an American, 
who has carefully examined the country, going down the 
whole length of the peninsula on the one side, and re- 
turning by the other, fixes it at 4000. The inhabitants 
are an imbecile race of mixed bloods and Indians, dwell- 
ing in the few small villages which the country contains, 
and upon the ranchos and haciendas. 

Cattle thrive where water is to be found, and many 
of the natives are excellent herdsmen. Fish are abund- 
ant, but the Californians lack the necessary energy to 
become successful fishermen upon a large scale. The 
pearl fisheries have for centuries brought strangers to 
this shore of the Gulf, and many of the inhabitants have 
served as divers with success. The production of pearls 
in the Sea of Cortez, or Gulf of California, has been so 
great during the last three centuries, that Mexico has be- 
come the greatest country for pearls yet known. Every 
female above the rank of a peasant must have at least 
one pearl to ornament the pin that fastens her shawl or 
mantilla upon the top of her head. Most of these pearls 
are of small value, on account of their imperfection in 
shape or color ; but their abundance is one of the first 
things that strike a stranger on entering Mexico. With 
a change of fashions, the foreign demand for pearls fell 
off so much that, for the last half century, these fisher- 
ies have been almost discontinued; but with the reviving 
demand for pearls, the fisheries have again risen to im- 
portance. For a more detailed account of these pearl- 
fisheries, I must refer to the following note.j 

* Colkccidn de Leyes, p. 180. 

f "The whole Pacific coast produces pearls, but the most extensive 
pearl-fisheries, at the present time, are in the Gulf of California, where, 
among an inexhaustible supply of little pearls, there are produced some 
of the very finest quality. The pearls of the Countess de Regla, those 
of the Marquesa de Gaudalupe, and Madame Velasco, are from these 



144 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

In the year 1600 the Jesuits first undertook the es- 
tablishment of a mission at Loretto, on the Gulf coast, 

fisheries, and are remarkable for their great size and value. The great 
pearl pi-esented to General Victoria, while he was President, Avas from 
the same locality." (Ward, vol. ii. p. 293.) 

" The pearls of this gulf are considered of excellent water, but their 
rather irregular figure somewhat reduces their value. " The manner of 
obtaining pearls is not without interest. The vessels employed in the 
fisheries are from fifteen to thirty tons burden. They are usually fit- 
ted out by private individuals. The armador or owner commands them. 
Crews are shipped to work them, and from forty to fifty Indians, called 
Busos, to dive for the oyster. A stock of provisions and spirits, a small 
sum of money to advance the people during the cruise, a limited sup- 
ply of calaboose furniture, a sufficient number of hammocks to sleep 
in, and a quantity of ballast, constitute nearly all the cargo outward 
bound. 

"Thus arranged, they sail into the Gulf; and, having arrived at the 
oyster banks, cast anchor and commence business. The divers are first 
called to duty. They plunge to the bottom in four or five fathom wa- 
ter, dig up with sharpened sticks as many oysters as they are able, rise 
to the surface, and deposit them in sacks hung to receive them at the 
vessel's side. And thus they continue to do till the sacks are filled, or 
the hours allotted to this part of the labor are ended. 

"When the diving of the day is done, all come on board and place 
themselves in a circle around the armador, who divides what they have 
obtained in the following manner : two oysters for himself, the same 
number for the Busos, or divers, and one for the government. This 
division having been concluded, they next proceed, without moving 
from their places, to open the oysters which have fallen to the lot of 
the armador. During this operation, that dignitary has to Avatch the 
Busos with the greatest scrutiny, to prevent them from swallowing the 
pearls with the oysters, a trick which they perform with so much dex- 
terity as to almost defy detection, and by means of which they often 
manage to secrete the most valuable pearls. 

"The government portion is next opened with the same precautions, 
and taken into possession by the armador. And, last of all, the Busos 
open theirs, and sell them to the armador in liquidation of debts incur- 
red for their outfits, or of moneys advanced during the voyage. They 
usually reserve a few to sell to dealers on shore, who always accompany 
these expeditions with spirituous liquors, chocolate, sugar, cigars, and 
other articles of which Indian divers are especially fond. Since the 
Mexicans obtained their independence, another mode of division has 
been adopted. Every time the Busos come up, the largest oyster which 
he has obtained is taken by the armador, and laid aside for the use of 
the Virgin Mary. The rest are thrown in a pile ; and, when the day's 
diving is ended, eight oysters are laid out for the armador, eight for 
the Busos, and two for the government. 



CALIFORNIAN PEARL-FISHERY. 145 

which has ever since been the capital of the Peninsula. 
From the time of their first establishment here down to 
the time of the expulsion of the Jesuits from all the do- 
minions of Spain, in 1767, they continued to cultivate 
this field, though it proved more than a match for their 
wonted perseverance. In a few places, the soil was 
made to yield its increase by the skillful application of 
the waters that sprung up among the mountains and 
rocks. Wherever irrigation was possible at small ex- 
pense, there an oasis made its appearance, which was in 
striking contrast to the general barrenness that prevailed. 
The manner in which conversions were effected by the 
Spanish priests may seem a little strange to the " volun- 
taries" of our day. The idea of running down a convert 
with dogs may seem to be rather an original method of 
proselyting, and has been severely commented upon by 
Forbes, and other Americans who have visited the Mis- 
sions. But then such men should bear in mind that 
Catholics are not voluntaries, and never rely upon per- 
suasion to make converts when they have the power to 
use a stronger argument. If this same class of mission- 
aries used dogs to convert the Waldenses in Italy, there 
is a greater reason for using them among the half-brutish 
Indians of California. With such a race, moral suasion 
has no force ; and to adduce arguments to convince a 
man whose only rule of action is the gratification of his 
sensual appetites, would be labor thrown away. 

"In the year 1831, one vessel with seventy Busos, another with fifty, 
and two with thirty each, and two boats with ten each, from the coast 
of Sonora, engaged in this fishery. The one brought in forty ounces of 
pearls, valued at $6500 ; another, twenty-one ounces, valued at $3000 ; 
another, twelve ounces, valued at $2000, and the two boats a propor- 
tionate quantity. There were, in the same season, ten or twelve other 
vessels, from other parts, employed in the same trade, which, if equally 
successful, swelled the value of pearls taken in that year to the sum of 
more than forty thousand dollars." — Farnhajm's Scenes in the Pacific, 
p. 307. 

G 



146 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

The good fathers took a more sensible view of the 
case. Having once obtained the consent of an Indian 
to receive Christian baptism, they took good care that he 
should not fall back from his profession, but retained 
him a prisoner of the cross. They used as much mild- 
ness as is compatible with their system, and only compell- 
ed their converts to labor as much as was necessary to the 
success of the mission, the rest of the time being devoted 
to their spiritual edification ; that is, they were employed 
in repeating Latin prayers and a Spanish catechism, 
after an old Indian who acted as prompter. Sometimes 
it was necessary to allow the Indians to go abroad for a 
time, but then their return was provided for by retaining 
the squaws and papooses as hostages, in the same man- 
ner as they provided for the return of the plantation 
bulls, by shutting up the cows and calves in the corral. 

The system pursued by the Jesuits, and, after their 
expulsion, by the Dominicans, was to treat the Indians 
as though they were half human and the other half bes- 
tial. Abstractly considered, this was very wrong ; but 
it was practically the only system of treatment that gave 
any promise of improving their condition. Though in 
many respects they were treated as slaves, yet the mis- 
sionaries had generally at heart the best interests of the 
Indians. With them it was a settled rule, that when an 
Indian was to be married, his kindred should be care- 
fully inquired after, and that among them he was to mar- 
ry, or not at all ; for long experience had taught the fa- 
thers that certain diseases, hereditary among them, were 
checked by each marrying into his own clan, while they 
were aggravated by intermarriage with a stranger. 

We may sum up the whole story of the combined 
missionary and governmental efforts at colonization in 
Lower Peninsular California, during a period of two hund- 
red and fifty years, by saying that they jointly succeeded 



MISSIONS IN CALIFORNIA. 147 

in establishing a poverty-stricken village of mud huts, 
called San Josef, at Cape San Lucas, where the Manilla 
galleon, on its voyage to Acapulco, could procure a sup- 
ply of fresh vegetables to stay the ravages of the scurvy 
among its crew. They also established a less import- 
ant village at La Paz, which, with Loretto, and divers 
small hamlets and ranchos, constitutes all there is of this 
parched peninsula. 

Upper California comes to my aid in illustration of 
the early condition of Mexico, for, without this assist- 
ance, many phenomena that are witnessed in Mexico 
would be inexplicable. The effects of sudden wealth, 
the great accumulations of precious metals in few hands, 
the gross immoralities to which such a state of things 
gives rise, the almost fabulous state of society that arises 
when, by delays in its export, the accumulations become 
"burdensome to the possessors, are no longer novelties in 
our day, and they now serve to illustrate the romance of 
the history of other times. 

When, in the year 1847, a party of American settlers 
and trappers hoisted the bear-flag in Upper California, 
their situation was strikingly similar to that of Cortez 
and his party. Numbers were about equal in each case. 
The Territory of California was equal to the whole em- 
pire of Montezuma. The hunters and trappers had a 
more formidable enemy to contend with than Cortez had ; 
but they proved themselves more than a match for all 
antagonists. Like Cortez, they found numerous villages 
of mud huts and a country governed by priests, but im- 
mensely superior in civilization and in arms to the Aztecs. 

In 1776, the monks of the angelic order of San Fran- 
cis had established missions along the coast. Adopting 
in this fertile country the practice of enforcing the labor 
of the Indians, the missions became vast grazing farms, 
where the priest, like the patriarchs of old, was the spir- 



148 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

itual and temporal head of the establishment, and had 
flocks and herds innumerable. Villages {pueblos) had 
been established by the aid of the royal government, and 
mud forts {presidios) were founded as a protection to 
both mission and pueblo ; and ranges iranchos) for cattle 
were granted to individuals. 

Such was California when it submitted to the " Plan 
of Iguala." It was reported to have had 75,000 In- 
dians in connection with its missions, and a large white 
and mixed population. But, according to our custom, 
we must deduct two thirds from all Spanish enumera- 
tions, and estimate the population of every class at only 
25,000 at most. 

The priests of the missions had quietly acquiesced in 
the usurpation of Iturbide, and acknowledged his empire ; 
but when Santa Anna proclaimed a republic, they were 
struck with horror. The idea of conferring civil rights 
upon Indians was monstrous. The very existence of 
the missions depended on keeping these poor creatures 
in servitude. And as for republicanism, that was in- 
compatible with the government of the Church; and, 
as good Catholics and priests, they solemnly protested 
against it. Had these missionaries been as poor as the 
apostles, they probably would not have been disturbed 
for their want of republicanism. But their wealth 
proved their ruin, and the ruin of Upper California. 

The new republic was at peace, and the surplus sol- 
diery had to be got rid of. It was not safe to disband 
them at home, where they might take to the roads and 
become successful robbers; but 1500 of the worst were 
selected for a distant expedition — the conquest of the 
far-off territory of California. And then a general was 
found who was in all respects worthy of his soldiery. 
He was pre-eminently the greatest coward in the Mexi- 
can army — so great a coward, that he subsequently, with- 



MEXICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 149 

out striking a blow, surrendered a fort, with a garrison 
of 500 men, unconditionally, to a party of 50 foreigners. 

Such was the great General Echandrea, the Mexican 
conqueror of California ; and such was the army that he 
led to the conquest of unarmed priests and an unarmed 
province. It was a perilous expedition — perilous, not 
to the soldiers, but to the villagers upon their route. 
All dreaded their approach and rejoiced at their depart- 
ure, for their march through their own country was a 
continued triumph, if one may judge from the amount of 
plunder they took from their friends upon the road. It 
was an expedition that FalstafY would have rejoiced to 
command, and his regiment would have distinguished 
themselves in such a war. Dry and dusty were the des- 
ert plains over which they marched, and dry and dusty 
were the throats of the army, for cigaritos were scarce, 
and muscat could seldom be found. But the toils of the 
long marches were relieved by frequent fandangoes, for 
the wives that followed the expedition equaled the men 
in numbers and courage. 

This long journey, and these days of perilous march- 
ing and nights of dancing, at length came to an end by 
their arrival at the enemy's frontier — the frontier of Cal- 
ifornia, which, to their joy, they found unguarded ; nor 
was there any found to dispute their passage or "to 
make them afraid;" for, had there been fifty resolute 
persons to oppose them, this valiant army would have 
absconded, and California would have remained an ap- 
panage of the crown of Spain. But Providence had or- 
dered it otherwise ; and this horde of vagabonds {leper os) 
came rushing on, with their wives and children, until 
they reached the cattle-yards {corrals), and then was dis- 
played their valor and their capacity for beef, and in 
the name of " God and Liberty" they gratified their ap- 
petite for plunder. The priests, on their part, stood up 



150 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

manfully, and witnessed a good confession. They re- 
fused to accept this phantom of liberty which a party 
of vagabonds brought to them. The conquerors, how- 
ever, could afford to be magnanimous in the midst of so 
much good eating, and no vengeance was inflicted upon 
unarmed men. But when the prefect of the missions 
was shipped off to Manilla, the war was at an end, for 
there was no means of defense, or, rather, it was changed 
from a war against priests to one against the cattle. 

Thus was California conquered and annexed to the 
United States of Mexico in the year 1825, and the 
laws and constitution of that republic extended over it. 
But it is an abuse of words to say that any law existed 
from that time onward. The confusion produced by 
the irruption of this horde of vagabonds continued un- 
interrupted, and it involved, in one chaotic mass, law, 
order, and every public and private right. The history 
of the country is inexplicable, and its public archives 
are a mass of such gross irregularities, and show such a 
total disregard of all law, that they are little better than 
the Sibylline leaves. 

The party that raised the "bear flag" met with no 
opposition. The party that landed from the shipping, 
and took possession of Monterey and San Francisco, 
were alike successful. But when a small party of Amer- 
ican soldiers, under General Kearney, entered the coun- 
try from the west, the rancheros took the alarm, and rush- 
ed forth on their fleet horses to defend their private prop- 
erty from spoliation, for they had no idea of regular sol- 
diers disconnected from robbery and cattle-stealing ! The 
Californians fought bravely, and hemmed in the little 
army of Americans until they were in a suffering con- 
dition for provisions, and until the dreaded hunters and 
trappers, and draughts from the shipping, routed the 
herdsmen and released the beleaguered force. This is 



AMEKICAN CONQUEST OF CALIFORNIA. 151 

all there was that looked like war in the American ac- 
quisition of this most valuable territory. 

Not only was there this similarity in respect to the 
inadequate means by which Mexico and California were 
acquired, but there is also a striking similarity in the 
fact of the immediate discovery of inexhaustible mines 
of precious metals, that gave importance to an otherwise 
comparatively insignificant conquest. Though so many 
centuries apart, each produced the same effect upon the 
political affairs of nations by suddenly furnishing the 
world with an abundant supply of the precious metals. 
The mines of Mexico, with some small supplies from 
South America, furnished the sinews of those religious 
wars that desolated Europe after the Reformation, and 
enabled Spain to maintain her vast armaments in the 
Spanish peninsula, and in her Italian kingdoms and 
principalities, and in her Belgian provinces. Spain was 
able to subsidize the armies of the Catholic League in 
France, and the forces of the Catholic Princes of Ger- 
many, and to turn back the tide of the Protestant Ref- 
ormation after it had entered Italy, overrun Navarre, and 
reached her own frontier. The gold of California and 
Australia has furnished England the sinews by which 
she has set on foot armies, and subsidized nations in the 
present crusade against Russia. 

At the time of the Reformation, all the precious metals 
were poured into the lap of a fanatical Catholic govern- 
ment ; now they are in Protestant hands, and all, at last, 
find their resting-place, even those of Mexico, in the Lon- 
don market; while out of English Protestantism has our 
republic arisen, which is still united to her by a com- 
mon language, a common religion, and commercial rela- 
tions, so that the London market regulates the value of 
our stocks and the price of the food we eat. But our 
common Protestantism is not the Protestantism of the 



152 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

Reformation : that was the Protestantism of princes, and 
every where rested for support upon state patronage, the 
people, in that epoch, having no political existence. Prot- 
estantism was then a state institution, and soon lost its 
vitality in such an unnatural alliance. The Protestant- 
ism of our day is the Protestantism of dissent, which re- 
jects state support, yet has shown itself more powerful 
than governments. It has restored peace to Ireland, and 
made its proselytes there Toy tens of thousands after the 
last British regiment was withdrawn. It has rent in 
twain the Church of Scotland, and is fast revolutionizing 
the Church of England, by driving to Rome those who 
prefer superstition to democracy, while it draws the re- 
mainder of the nation to itself. In the United States 
it is the ruling power, though it has here no political 
authority. It has penetrated the most obscure hamlets 
of France and Spain, and made thousands of converts 
in Italy itself. And where its preachers could not pen- 
etrate, there the written Word has found its way. 

The letters of Cortez show that he, like his master, 
was above the superstitions of the Spanish race ; yet 
both, skillful diplomatists, knew well how to avail them- 
selves of the superstitions of others. The early Spanish 
adventurers to Mexico were a good illustration of the 
doctrine of total depravity, and the priests, that held them 
in leading-strings, were as depraved as themselves. 
"Like priests, like people." Our first settlers in Cali- 
fornia had learned self-government and self-control in 
the school of Protestantism ; and when they took posses- 
sion of that part of the country beyond the limit of Span- 
ish settlements, where there were no laws and no writ- 
ten code, they were a law unto themselves, and the 
Spanish Americans that gathered about them found 
more perfect protection to life and property than they 
had ever before enjoyed. The Spanish adventurer^, at 



MEXICO TWO CENTURIES AGO. 153 

Mexico lavished the wealth which they had acquired by 
the forced labor of the Indians in the mines upon priests 
and monks, who amused them with lying miracles. 
They also gave money as an atonement for the criminal 
lives they led, and to shield themselves from the ven- 
geance of the Inquisition, where they were suspected of 
being rich. The religion of the Californians was a sim- 
ple veneration for the truths of Scripture. In some it 
amounted to devotion, but it was devotion sanctioned by 
reason and the understanding. They all alike despised 
superstition and abhorred despotism. In conclusion, I 
may add, that, had such a race of men as I saw in the 
mountains and villages of California at an early period 
of its settlement existed at the time of the conquest of 
Mexico, they would have revolutionized the world. 

We have heard much of the immorality, excessive ex- 
travagance and luxury of the cities of California ; but 
the following picture of the state of the city of Mexico 
in the heyday of its prosperity, five years before it was 
destroyed by an inundation, is from the black-letter vol- 
ume of Thomas Gage, of which I have already availed 
myself. 

"Almost all Mexico is now built with very fair and 
spacious houses, with gardens of recreation. The streets 
are very broad ; in the narrowest of them three coaches 
may go, and in the broadest of them six may go in the 
breadth of them, which makes the city seem a great deal 
bigger than it is. In my time it was thought to be of 
between thirty and forty thousand inhabitants, Spaniards, 
who are so proud and rich, that half the city was judged 
to keep coaches ; for it was a most credible report that 
in Mexico there were about 15,000 coaches." 

"It is a by-word that at Mexico there are four things 
fair ; that is to say, the women, the apparel, the horses, 
and the streets. But to this I may add the. beautv of 

G2 



154 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

some of the coaches of the gentry, which do exceed in 
cost the best of the court of Madrid, and other parts of 
Christendom, for they spare no silver, nor gold, nor pre- 
cious stones, nor cloth of gold, nor the best silks from 
China, to enrich them ; and to the gallantry of their 
horses the pride of some doth add the cost of bridles and 
shoes of silver. The streets of Christendom must not 
compare with those in breadth and cleanness, but espe- 
cially in the riches of the shops which do adorn them. 
Above all, the goldsmith's shops and works are to be 
admired. The [East] Indians, and the people of China, 
that have been made Christians, and every year come 
thither, have perfected the Spaniards in that trade. 
There is in the cloister of the Dominicans a lamp hang- 
ing in the Church, with three hundred branches wrought 
in silver, to hold so many candles, besides a hundred 
little lamps for oil set in it, every one being made with 
several workmanship so exquisitely that it is valued to 
be worth four hundred thousand ducats ; and with such 
like curious works are many streets made more rich and 
beautiful from the shops of goldsmiths. 

" To the by-word touching the beauty of the women 
I must add the liberty they enjoy for gaming, which is 
such that the day and night is too short for them to end 
a primer a when once it is begun ; nay, gaming is so 
common to them, that they invite gentlemen to their 
houses for no other end. To myself it happened that, 
passing along the streets in company with a friar that 
came with me the year before from Spain, a gentlewom- 
an of great birth, knowing us to be new-comers, from 
her window called unto us, and, after two or three slight 
questions concerning Spain, asked us if we would come 
in and play with her a game atjprimera. Both men and 
women are excessive in their apparel, using more silks 
than stuffs and cloth. Precious stones and pearls farther 



MEXICO TWO CENTURIES AGO. 157 

much this vain ostentation. A hatband and rose made 
of diamonds in a gentleman's hat is common, and a hat- 
band of pearls is ordinary in a tradesman ; nay, a black- 
amore, or tawney young maid and slave, will make hard 
shift but she will be in fashion with her neck-chain and 
bracelets of pearls, and her ear-bobs of considerable 
jewels. 

" Their clothing is a petticoat of silk or cloth, with 
many silver or golden laces, with a very double rib- 
bon of some light color, with long silver or golden tags 
hanging down in front the whole length of their petticoat 
to the ground, and the like behind ; their waistcoats 
made like bodies, with skirts, laced likewise with gold 
and silver, without sleeves, and a girdle about their waist 
of great price, stuck with pearls and knobs of gold. 
Their sleeves are broad and open at the end, of Holland 
or fine China linen, wrought, some with colored silks, 
some with silk and gold, some with silk and silver, hang- 
ing down almost to the ground ; the locks of their heads 
are covered with some wrought quoif, and over it an- 
other of net-work of silk, bound with a fair silk, or sil- 
ver, or golden ribbon, which crosses the upper part of 
their foreheads, and hath commonly worked out in let- 
ters some light and foolish love posie ; their bare, black, 
and tawney breasts, are covered with bobs hanging from 
their chains of pearls. And when they go abroad, they 
use a white mantle of lawn or cambric, rounded with a 
broad lace, which some put over their heads, the breadth 
reaching only to their middles behind, that their girdle 
and ribbons may be seen, and the two ends before reach- 
ing to the ground almost ; others cast their mantles only 
upon their shoulders ; and swaggerers like to cast the one 
end over the left shoulder, while with their right arm 
they support the lower part of it, more like roaring boys 
than honest civil maids. Their shoes are high and of 



158 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

many soles, the outside whereof of the profaner sort are 
plated over with a lift of silver, which is fastened with 
small nails with broad silver heads. Most of these are or 
have been slaves, though love have set them loose at lib- 
erty to enslave souls to sin and Satan ; and for the 
looseness of their lives, and public scandals committed 
by them and the better sort of the Spaniards, I have 
heard them say often, who possessed more religion and 
fear of God, they verily thought God would destroy that 
city, and give up the country into the power of some 
other nation. 

"And I doubt not but the flourishing of Mexico in 
coaches, horses, streets, women, and apparel, is very slip- 
pery, and will make those proud inhabitants slip and 
fall into the power and dominion of some other prince of 
this world, and hereafter, in the world to come, into the 
powerful hands of an angry Judge, who is the King of 
kings and Lord of lords, which Paul saith (Heb. x. 31) 
is a fearful thing. For this city doth not only flourish 
in the ways aforesaid, but also in the superstitious wor- 
shiping of God and the saints they exceed Rome itself, 
and all other places of Christendom. And it is a thing 
which I have very much and carefully observed in all 
my travels, both in Europe and America, that in those 
cities wherein there is most lewd licentiousness of life, 
there is also most cost in the temples, and most public 
superstitious worship of God and the saints." 

So much for worthy Thomas Gage, and his estimate 
of the Mexicans of his day. 

I arrived at San Francisco in the midst of the gold 
excitement. The town was crowded with rough-looking 
muscular men in red shirts, slouch hats, and trowsers 
over which were drawn high-topped boots. A Colt's re- 
volver, a belt filled with gold, and an unshaven visage 
completed the tout ensemble of a crowd who were pur- 



AMEEICANS IN CALIFORNIA. 159 

chasing supplies for their companions in the mines. 
They strode along, conscious that they belonged to the 
Anglo-Saxon race and the aristocracy of labor. As they 
turned into the temporary houses or booths which then 
constituted the town, or threaded their way among the 
piles of merchandise that encumbered the streets, the 
effeminate natives instinctively shrunk back, conscious 
of their own imbecility ; the Spanish Americans were 
overawed by their presence ; and even Sidney convicts 
thought it most profitable to turn their thoughts to hon- 
est labor. 

The miner had his vices too as well as his virtues. 
If you will follow him as he opens right and left a crowd 
that surrounds a table heaped with lumps of gold and 
silver coin, you will see how carelessly he throws down 
a piece of metal, looking sharply into the eye of the cun- 
ning dealer of the monte cards. If he detects a false 
move, he cocks his weapon, and draws the gold back into 
his bag and strides away. 

Such were the men who knew no fear, and dreaded 
no labor or fatigue, and who have made California in 
five short years a state more powerful than the Republic 
of Mexico. 

In an interior town I was called to practice as an at- 
torney. My first client was the driver of an ox-team, 
who was suing for extra services in addition to his reg- 
ular wages of five hundred dollars a month and board 
(Doe vs. Pickett). My office was a space of four feet by 
six, partitioned off by two cotton sheets, in the corner of 
a canvas store. The ground was for a while the floor ; 
yet I paid in advance the monthly rent of two ounces of 
gold, and never had occasion to regret the outlay. The 
heavy winter rains at length compelled my landlord to 
lay a floor of rough boards, which cost him seven hund- 
red dollars for a thousand feet. 



160 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

Before the establishment of the state government, 
there was a judiciary created by an autocratical edict of 
General Riley ; and a pamphlet, extracted and translated 
from the Mexican Constitutional laws of 1836, constitu- 
ted the Corpus Juris Civilis of the Territory of Califor- 
nia. The remainder of the law was made up of the 
judge's ideas of equity, and of the law he had read be- 
fore leaving home. Inartificial and rude as was this sys- 
tem, still it was wonderfully efficient ; and it was well 
for the people of California that it was so, for an unpar- 
alleled immigration had brought with it an unparalleled 
amount of litigation. 

With the daily occurring causes of litigation, crowds 
assembled at the school-house on the Plaza, where from 
morning to night sat a judge dispensing off-hand justice. 
In front of him sat three or four clerks conducting the 
business. The crowds of lawyers, litigants, and wit- 
nesses that surrounded the court were not idle specta- 
tors, but represented the ordinary accumulation of busi- 
ness for the day, which was to be disposed of before the 
adjournment of the court. Speedy justice was more de- 
sirable than exact justice, where labor was valued at a 
gold ounce a day ; and none were more desirous of speed 
than the lawyers, whose prospects of compensation de- 
pended much upon the promptitude with which judg- 
ment was rendered. 

The moving spirit of the whole scene, Judge A , 

watched from behind the desk all that was said or done, 
seldom withdrawing his attention unless to administer 
an oath for the consideration of one dollar, or to sign an 
order for the consideration of two dollars. Sometimes 
he would change his position; but, whether warming 
his uncovered feet at the fire-place, or drawing on his 
boots, or replenishing his stock of tobacco, there was the 
same unalterable attention on his part. As soon as he 



CALIFOENIAN COURTS. 161 

comprehended a case, his authoritative voice was heard, 
closing the discussion, and dictating to a clerk the exact 
number of dollars and cents for which he should enter 
up a judgment. And then another, and another case 
was called up, and submitted to this summary process, 
until about nine o'clock at night, when the day's work 
terminated. All orders asked for by a responsible at- 
torney were granted ex parte, the judge remarking that 
if the order was not a proper one, the other party would 
soon appear, and then he could ascertain the real merits 
of the case. The grand feature of this court was the fa- 
cility with which an injunction could be obtained, and 
the rapidity with which it could be set aside. 

Crime was almost unknown until we got a state gov- 
ernment and a code of laws, which, with misplaced phi- 
lanthropy, had made the legal practice so easy upon crim- 
inals that a conviction was next to impossible. Then 
it was that crime stalked abroad in the face of day, and 
Sidney convicts plied their trade in San Francisco after 
it had become a city. Shops were entered and robbed 
in business hours ; and by night, men were murdered in 
the streets ; and thefts escaped punishment. Then it 
was that men, caught in the commission of crime, were 
hanged in the open streets, and combinations were form- 
ed for self-defense. But when a new Legislature gave 
efficiency to the laws, the community yielded a willing- 
obedience to the magistrate. From an early day there 
had been "miners' courts," which, with their alcaldes, 
had conciliated differences. But when magistrates were 
elected, these courts disappeared. This was a change 
from bad to worse, for no condition is so deplorable as 
that of a people whose magistracy are powerless. 

Such is a fair picture of California in its worst estate, 
when the worst and the best of all nations were there 
congregated, and kept in subjection by the law-abiding 



162 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

spirit of an Anglo-Saxon immigration — a state of society 
in the first year of its existence, yet infinitely superior 
to that existing in the city of Mexico a hundred years 
after the discovery of the mines of Haxal and Pachuca. 
But we may complete the contrast by adding the more 
deplorable part of the picture which Friar Thomas Gage 
has drawn. 

"It seems," says he, "that religion teaches that all 
wickedness is allowable, so that the churches and cler- 
gy flourish. Nay, while the purse is open to lascivious- 
ness, if it be likewise open to enrich the temple walls 
and roofs, this is better than any holy water, or water to 
wash away the filth of the other. Rome is held to be 
the head of superstition ; and what stately churches, 
chapels, and cloisters are in it ! What fastings, what 
processions, what appearances of devotion ! And, on the 
other side, what liberty, what profaneness, what whore- 
doms, nay, what sins of Sodom are committed in it, in- 
somuch that it could be the saying of a friar to myself, 
while I was in it, that he verily thought there was no 
one city in the world wherein were more Atheists than in 
Home. I might show this much in Madrid, Seville, Val- 
ladolid, and other famous cities in Spain and in Italy ; 
in Milan, Genoa, and Naples ; relating many instances 
of scandals committed in those places, and yet the tem- 
ples are mightily enriched by those who have thought 
their alms a sufficient warrant to free them from hell 
and purgatory. But I must return to Mexico, which 
furnishes a thousand witnesses of this truth — sin and 
wickedness abounding in it — and yet no such people in 
the world toward the Church and clergy. In their life- 
time they strive to excel one another in their gifts to the 
cloisters of nuns and friars, some erecting altars to their 
best-devoted saints, worth many thousand ducats, others 
presenting crowns of gold to the pictures of Mary, others 



MEXICO TWO CENTURIES AGO. 163 

lamps, others golden chains, others building cloisters at 
their own charge, others repairing them, others, at their 
death, leaving to them two or three thousand ducats for 
an annual stipend. 

"Among these great benefactors to the churches of 
that city, I should wrong my history if I should forget 
one that lived in my time, called Alonzo Cuellar, who 
was reported to have a closet in his house laid with bars 
of gold instead of brick ; though indeed it was not so, 
but only reported for his abundant riches and store of 
bars of gold, which he had in one chest, standing in a 
closet distant from another, where he had a chest full of 
wedges of silver. This man alone built a nunnery for 
Franciscan nuns, which stood him in above 30,000 du- 
cats, and left unto it, for the maintenance of the nuns, 
2000 ducats yearly, with obligation of some masses to be 
said in the church every year for his soul after his decease. 
And yet this man's life was so scandalous, that common- 
ly, in the night, with two servants, he would go round 
the city visiting such scandalous persons, whose attire 
before hath been described, carrying his beads in his 
hands, and at every house letting fall a bead, and tying 
a false knot, that when he came home in the morning, 
toward break of the day, he might number by his beads 
the uncivil stations he had walked and visited that night. 

" Great alms and liberality toward religious houses in 
that city commonly are coupled with great and scanda- 
lous wickedness. They wallow in the bed of riches and 
wealth, and make their alms the coverlet to cover their 
loose and lascivious lives. From hence are the churches 
so fairly built and adorned. There are not above fifty 
churches and chapels, cloisters and nunneries, and parish 
churches in the city ; but those that are there are the fair- 
est that ever my eyes beheld, the roofs and beams being, 
in many of them, all daubed with gold, and many altars 



164 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGrlON. 

with sundry marble pillars, and others with Brazil-wood 
stays standing one above another, with tabernacles for 
several saints, richly wrought with golden colors, so that 
twenty thousand ducats is a common price of many of 
them. These cause admiration in the common sort of 
people, and admiration brings on daily adoration in them 
to those glorious spectacles and images of saints ; so 
Satan shows Christ all the glory of the kingdoms to en- 
tice him to admiration, and then he said, * All these 
things will I give thee if thou wilt fall down and wor- 
ship me' (Matthew, iv. 8, 9). The devil will give all 
the world to be adored. 

" Besides these beautiful buildings, the inward riches 
belonging to the altars are infinite in price and value, 
such as copes, canopies, hangings, altar-cloths, candle- 
sticks, jewels belonging to the saints, and crowns of gold 
and silver, and tabernacles of gold and crystal to carry 
about their sacrament [the Saviour of the world in the 
form of a wafer] in procession, all of which would mount 
to the worth of a reasonable mine of silver, and would be 
a rich prey for any nation that could make better use of 
wealth and riches. I will not speak much of the lives 
of the friars and nuns of this city, but only that they 
there enjoy more liberty than in Europe — where they 
have too much — and that surely the scandals committed 
by them do cry up to Heaven for vengeance, judgment, 
destruction. 

"It is ordinary for the friars to visit their devoted 
nuns, and to spend whole days with them, hearing their 
music, feeding on their sweetmeats ; and for this purpose 
they have many chambers, which they call loquatories, 
to talk in, with wooden bars between the nuns and them ; 
and in these chambers are tables for the friars to dine at, 
and while they dine the nuns recreate them with their 
voices. Gentlemen and citizens give their daughters to 



MEXICO TWO CENTUEIES AGO. 165 

be brought up in these nunneries, where they are taught 
to make all sorts of conserves and preserves, all sorts of 
music, which is so exquisite in that city that I dare be 
bold to say that the people are drawn to churches more 
for the delight of the music than for any delight in the 
service of God. More, they teach these young children 
to act like players ; and, to entice the people to the 
churches, they make these children act short dialogues 
in their choirs, richly attiring them with men and wom- 
en's apparel, especially upon Midsummer's day and the 
eight days before their Christmas, which is so gallantly 
performed that many factious strifes and single combats 
have been, and some were in my time, for defending 
which of these nunneries most excelled in music and in 
the training up of children." 

Such is a picture drawn by a candid writer of one of 
the most devout Catholic cities in the world, where licen- 
tiousness and papacy went hand in hand until they 
reached that extreme point of corruption, that, as in the 
case of Sodom, God overthrew the city by a judgment 
from heaven ; not by fire and brimstone, but by a wa- 
ter-spout, which, in the space of the five years that it 
lay upon the town three feet deep, loosened the founda- 
tions of all buildings and impoverished the inhabitants. 
And when at length the earth opened and swallowed up 
these waters, the city had to be rebuilt. The misery 
and distress that this flood inflicted upon the lower or- 
ders of the inhabitants was great in the extreme. 

It was on Sunday morning that the cause of the mor- 
al superiority of the American miners over those of Mex- 
ico was visible. Then the noise and bustle about my 
residence was hushed. The most immoral seemed to be 
overawed by a sense of respect for the religious opinions 
of others ; and when the sound of a ship-bell, hung on 
the limb of a tree, was heard, all except the baser sort 



166 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

repaired to the shade of an oak, so large and venerable 
that it might have shielded the whole household of Abra- 
ham while engaged in family worship. A portable ser- 
aphine gave forth a familiar tune, in which all joined 
in singing with a zest which is only realized by those 
whom it carries back in recollection to distant home. 
Then the voice of the preacher was heard invoking the 
blessing of God upon the assembled worshipers, and his 
pardon of their offenses ; and then followed his exhorta- 
tion to seek from God the pardon of their many sins ; 
and as he, with heartfelt earnestness, " reasoned of right- 
eousness, temperance, and a judgment to come," many a 
stern-visaged miner trembled for his condition, and went 
away a better and a more honest man — ten thousand 
times more improved than if he had presented a crown 
of gold to the Virgin Mary. 

We are now prepared to enter the valley of Mexico, 
and examine the objects that there present themselves. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

First Sight of the Valley of Mexico. — A Venice in a mountain Valley. 
— An Emperor waiting his Murderers. — Cortez mowing down un- 
armed Indians. — A new kind of Piety. — Capture of an Emperor. — 
Torturing an Emperor to Death. — The Children paying the Penalty 
of their Eathers' Crimes. — The Aztecs and other Indians. — The Dif- 
ference is in the Historians. — The Superstitions of the Indians. — 
The Valley of Mexico. — An American Survey of the Valley. — A 
topographical View. — The Ponds Chalco, Xochimulco, and Tezcuco 
were never Lakes. 

My first view of the Yalley of Mexico was from the 
point where the Acapulco road passes the Cross of the 
"Marquis of the Yalley." I had read with eagerness 
the History of the Conquest, and of the adventures of 
the noble Conquistador. Not a shadow of a doubt had 
then crossed my mind in regard to the truth of all that 
had been so elegantly written. Beautiful composition 
had supplied the place of evidence, and that practice of 
writing romances of history which the Spaniards had in- 
herited from the Moors had completely captivated me, as 
it had thousands of others. The aspect of the valley 
was all that my fancy had painted it. The sun was in 
the right quarter to produce the greatest possible effect. 
The unnumbered pools of surface-water that abound in 
the valley appeared at that distance like so many lake- 
lets supplied by crystal fountains, as each one reflected 
the bright sun from its mirror-like surface; these all 
were inclosed in the richest setting of nature's green. 

It was such a scene as would justify the extravagant 
language which Spaniards have employed in describing 
it. While I recalled its traditional history, I was tempt- 
ed to exclaim as a native would have done, and to give 



168 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

credence to the fables of which this valley has been the 
scene. Here, as the story ran, amid floating gardens of 
rarest flowers and richest fruits, lay, in olden time, an- 
other Venice — a Venice in an inland mountain valley — 
a Venice upon whose Rialto never walked a Shylock 
with his money-bags ; for in this market-place the most 
delicious fruits the world produces, the loveliest flow- 
ers, rich stuffs resplendent with Tyrian dyes, and prince- 
ly mantles of feather-work, were bought with pretty 
shells, and such money as the sea produces. It was 
a Venice with its street of waters and its central basin, 
where jostled the gondolas of the Aztec nobles and the 
light canoes of birch bark among the vessels of commerce 
which came laden with slaves and other merchandise 
from the surrounding villages — a basin that disappeared 
the same day that the Indian empire fell. 

This basin was the last vestige of Aztec dominion ; 
and when there no longer was any safe shelter upon the 
land, Guatemozin retired to his canoe and took shelter 
here, and calmly waited till his time should come to be 
murdered. He could not flee. He could not capitulate, 
for he was an emperor. As he sat here waiting for 
death, what must have been his reflections ! What 
thoughts did not the very boat he occupied call up! 
How often had it carried him out upon the lake to the 
floating gardens and volcanic islands, where he had wit- 
nessed so many times the gorgeous reflections of an 
evening sun upon the snow-capped Popocatapetl, in whose 
bowels "the god of fire" had his dwelling! And then 
the lake itself, how much it had perplexed his thoughts, 
that in one part its waters should be fresh, with islands 
teeming with the richest vegetation, and in another part 
salt and bitter, with utter barrenness resting upon its 
shores ! How he used to meet his brother of Tezcuco 
in the after part of the day, to exchange congratulations 



GUATEMOZIN. 169 

and talk over affairs of interest to "both the royal families ! 
Now all these pleasures were terminated forever. His 
brother of Tezcuco was in the ranks of his enemies, seek- 
ing his destruction. 

Thus sat the emperor, surrounded "by a numerous 
fleet of canoes, whose occupants were without hope of 
escape or strength to fight; but, with Indian stoicism, all 
sat waiting their inevitable doom from freebooters whom 
they had disappointed of their prey. As the emperor 
and his nobles sat here witnessing the destruction of 
their pumice-stone palaces and mud-built huts, and the 
filling up of their canals, they consoled themselves with 
the reflection that their gold and their wealth were all at 
the bottom of these canals, and that the Spaniards, in 
their hot haste to enjoy the spoils of the city, were un- 
wittingly burying forever the prize for which they were 
contending. Such were the thoughts of these Aztecs as 
they sat in their canoes, longing for death to relieve them 
from agony of suspense, enduring all the torments of the 
extremest thirst, which they vainly sought to quench by 
draughts of the brackish water of the lake. They had 
not long to wait ; for, by the express commands of Cor- 
tez, his followers were mowing down unresisting citizens, 
because the emperor, over whom they had no control, 
would not surrender himself. 

Who can stand for the first time upon the mountain 
rim that incloses this valley, and not have his thoughts 
carried back to some such scene as this ? The recollec- 
tion is not easily eradicated that the remnant of a once 
powerful tribe of Indians, partially emerged from barba- 
rism, here received their death, in cold blood, at the hands 
of a party of white murderers. The good Archbishop 
Loranzana commends the piety of Cortez in never neg- 
lecting to attend mass before going out to his daily work 
of slaughter. It was a pious act, no doubt, that on the 

H 



170 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

last morning of the siege he stopped and listened to a 
mass — that pantomime which set forth the death of the 
Redeemer of the world — preparatory to consummating 
the butchery of Indians incapable of resistance. 

Garci Holguin, the master of a brigantine, or rather 
flat-boat, bolder than the rest, drove through the fleet of 
canoes that occupied the basin, until he encountered in 
the centre a canoe containing the person of the emperor, 
whom he made prisoner and brought to Cortez, where- 
upon the slaughter ceased. 

Neither the horrid sight which the city presented, nor 
the fallen fortunes of a brave enemy, could move the 
soul of Cortez. A brigand knows no remorse and feels 
no pity. Gold had been the object of his pious mission, 
and when he found not gold enough to satisfy the crav- 
ings of his gang, he soaked the fallen emperor's feet in 
oil, and then burned them at a slow fire, to extort from 
him a confession of the place of concealment of his sup- 
posed treasure ; and when, in after years, he was tired of 
the burden of such a prisoner, he wantonly hanged him 
up by the heels to die in a distant forest. 

In this very city where Cortez tortured Guatemozin 
was a son of Cortez, who inherited the spoils of his fa- 
ther's atrocities, put to the torture by one of the Vice- 
kings, while the children's children of the Conquistadors 
paid for the wealth they inherited in the terrible penal- 
ties inflicted upon them by the buccaneers, that ravaged 
their coasts for two hundred years. Have not the sins 
of the fathers been visited upon the children ? 

The Aztecs, their empire, and their city, have long since 
disappeared ; their crimes, and the despotism which they 
exercised over the tribes they had conquered, are all for- 
gotten in the terrible catastrophe that extinguished their 
national existence. Three hundred years of servitude 
in the indiscriminate mass of Indian serfs has blotted out 



THE AZTECS AND THEIE HISTORIANS. 171 

every feeling of nationality. A few vagabonds among 
them still claim royal descent, and, by virtue of their 
blood or their imposture, pretend to exercise, in obscure 
villages, an undefined jurisdiction over Indians as op- 
pressed as themselves. But the characteristics of the 
North American Indians are still visible ; they still ex- 
hibit the contradictory traits of Indian character — cruel- 
ty and kindness, shyness and self-possession ; enduring 
the greatest trials without a murmur, and suffering op- 
pression without complaint ; delighting as much as their 
northern brethren in tawdry exhibitions, in traditions 
of the marvelous, they seem to carry hidden in their in- 
most soul an idea that the time will come when they 
may take vengeance of the despoilers of their race. 
They have the Indian's love of adventure and want of 
courage. They delight rather in a successful stratagem 
than in open hostility, and deem no act of treachery dis- 
honorable by which they can gain an advantage. Still, 
they have less romance in their composition than the un- 
enslaved northern Indians, into whose souls the iron of 
despotism has never entered. 

The great difference between what is recorded of the 
North American Indian and the Aztec is owing less to 
any difference in themselves than to the character of the 
historians who have written of them. The northern 
writers were not carried away by the romance of Indian 
life ; they were matter-of-fact men, and they drew only 
matter-of-fact pictures. Spanish historians, and all ear- 
ly Spanish writers upon New Spain, except the two brig- 
ands, Cortez and Diaz, were priests. With them, truth 
was not an essential part of history. By the law of all 
countries, the Conquistadors had outlawed themselves by 
levying unlicensed war ; but as they bore a painting of 
the Virgin Mary on one of their standards and the cross 
on the other, it would be impiety to place their conduct 



172 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

in its true light. Las Casas was an exception, and en- 
dured persecution for speaking the truth. "He had 
powerful enemies," was all that his apologist dare say, 
"because he spake the truth." And if we add to this 
the sevenfold censorship already described, my reader 
will agree with me that it is absurd to place confidence 
in records over which the Inquisition exercised a sur- 
veillance. 

The fabled Aztec empire has almost passed from the 
traditions of the Mexican Indians. The name of only 
one of their chiefs, Montezuma, remains among them, and 
this name is affixed to almost every thing that has an 
ancient look and is in a dilapidated condition. In my 
wanderings among them, I never rejected their proffers 
of rude hospitality, and I have listened with pleasure to 
their wild traditions. I soon found that, like other In- 
dians, they draw from a supernatural " dream- world" the 
fortitude that enables them to bear without a murmur 
their hard lot in the present. They readily embraced 
the superstitions of the Spaniards, and rendered to the 
virgin of Gaudalupe the adoration they had formerly be- 
stowed upon their own gods. Their conveision may be 
summed up in the words of Humboldt : " Dogma has 
not succeeded to dogma, but ceremony to ceremony. 
The natives know nothing of religion but the external 
forms of worship. Fond of whatever is connected with 
a prescribed order of ceremonies, they find in the Chris- 
tian religion particular enjoyment. The festivals of the 
Church, the fire-works with which they are accompanied, 
the processions mingled with whimsical disguises, are a 
most fertile source of amusement to the lower Indians." 

There has been a great deal of poetry and very little 
plain prose written about the valley of Mexico. At an 
early morning hour I stood upon the heights of Rio Frio ; 
at another morning, as already said, at the Cross of the 



THE VALLEY OF MEXICO. 173 

Marquis ; again, upon the highest peak of the Tepeyaca, 
behind Guadalupe, I saw a tropical morning sun disen- 
gage itself from the snowy mountains. From these three 
favored spots I have looked upon the valley, where dry 
land and pools of water seemed equally to compose the 
magnificent panorama. Immense mirrors of every con- 
ceivable shape and form were reflecting back the rays of 
the sun, while the green shores in which they were set 
enhanced the effect. The white walls, and domes, and 
spires of the distant city heightened the effect of a picture 
that can only be fully appreciated by those who have 
looked downward through the pure atmosphere of such 
a lofty position ; but when I came down to the common 
level, the charm was broken. Instead of lakelets and crys- 
tal springs, I found only pools of surface-water which 
the rains had left ; and the canals were but the ditches 
from which, on either side, the dirt had been taken to 
build the causeway through the marsh, and were now 
covered with a coat of green. These lakes have no out- 
let, and as evaporation only takes up pure water, all the 
animal, vegetable, and mineral matter that is carried in 
is left to stagnate and putrefy in the ponds and ditches. 
A practical "man of the times," with more common 
sense than poetry in his composition, must grieve as he 
looks at the great advantages here possessed for drainage 
and irrigation which are unimproved. There is not a 
spot in the Avhole valley that is not capable of the most 
perfect drainage,* while basins have been formed by na- 
ture in the highest points, from which irrigation could be 
supplied to the whole valley ; but decay and neglect — fit- 
ting types of the social condition of the people — every 
where exhibit themselves. Water stands in all the nar- 
row canals or ditches that occupy the middle of the 

* Report of M. L. Smith, Lieutenant of Topographical Engineers, 
United States Arm v. 



174 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

streets, for the want simply of a sewer to draw it down 
to the level of the Tezcuco. Once a year the flags are 
taken off from the covered ditches, and the mud is dip- 
ped out, while a bundle of hay, tied to the tail of a dirt- 
cart, is daily dragged through the open ones. 

I have spoken only of the lower division of this val- 
ley — the valley in which the city stands. If we consider 
the two partly separated valleys as one, the whole will 
constitute an oval basin 75 miles long from north to 
south, with an average width from east to west of 20 
miles. Two thirds of the southern valley is a marsh, 
and might well be called the " Montezuma Marsh," it so 
strikingly resembles the marsh of that name in the State 
of New York, though the whole body of ponds and 
marshes of this valley contains much less water than its 
northern namesake. The stage-road from Vera Cruz 
crosses this marsh for fourteen miles, and has a great 
number of small stone bridges, beneath which the water 
runs with considerable current toward the north, on ac- 
count of the difference of level between the southern 
fresh-water ponds and the lower salt-water ponds, as in 
the days of Cortez. There are occasional dry spots, and 
now and then there is open water ; but the greater por- 
tion is filled with marsh grass, and furnishes good feed- 
ing for the droves of cattle that daily frequent it for that 
purpose. The ancient village of Mexicalzingo, or " Lit- 
tle Mexico," the traditional home of the Aztecs before 
they built Mexico, is situated on one of the dry spots, 
slightly elevated above the level of the fresh water; 
and on another dry spot or island, six miles distant, 
stands the famous city of Mexico itself, resting on piles 
driven into a foundation of soft earth. The canal of 
Chalco commences at the northerly extremity of the 
Xochimulco, and, passing by Mexicalzingo and the float- 
ing gardens, continues -along the eastern front of the city, 



THE LAKES OP THE VALLEY. 175 

and empties itself into the salt (tequisquile) pond of 
Tezcuco, having received as a tributary the canal of Ta- 
cubaya, which passes along the southern boundary of 
the city. 

The highest water of the valley of the city of Mexico 
is the pond of Chalco, in the extreme southeast, being 
4^- feet above the level of the Grand Plaza of the 
city, and 20 miles distant therefrom, and 11-^ feet 
above Tezcuco ;* but its volume being small for the last 
400 years, the slight impediments of long grass and a few 
Indian dikes have prevented any injury to the city by a 
too rapid flow to the northward. Xochimulco is the 
pond, or open space in the marsh, that extends from the 
Chalco to near Mexicalzingo. Tezcuco is the lowest 
water in the valley, being 6^ feet below the Grand 
Plaza of the city.f It receives the surplus of the waters 
that have not already been evaporated in the other ponds. 
At this great elevation, 7500 feet, evaporation does its 
work rapidly all over the valley, but it is in Tezcuco 
that the residuum of the waters is deposited. 

* Lieut. Smith's Report. f Ibid. 



CHAPTER XY. 

The two Valleys. — The Lake with a leaky Bottom. — The Water could 
not have been higher. — Nor could the Lagunas or Ponds have been 
much deeper. — The Brigantines only flat-bottomed Boats. — The 
Causeway Canals fix the size of the Brigantines. — The Street Ca- 
nals. — Stagnant Water unfit for Canals. — The probable Dimensions 
of the City Canals. — Difficulties of disproving a Fiction. — A Dike or 
Levee. — The Canal of Huehuetoca. — The Map of Cortez. — Wise 
Provision of Providence. — The Fiction about the numerous Cities 
in and about the Lake. 

It may be well here to repeat that, strictly speaking, 
there are two valleys of Mexico — the upper northern val- 
ley, and the valley of the city of Mexico ; the first ex- 
tends in an oval form to the north of the hills of Tepe- 
yaca, some sixty miles, and communicates with the plains 
of Otumba and Apam. In this valley are the two ponds, 
or lagunas, of Zumpango and San Cristobal, the high- 
est waters of Mexico ; and in it also is the half of the 
Tezcuco, which is the lowest laguna of the valleys. It 
is a country of fine farming lands, and was probably in- 
habited long before the time of the arrival of the Aztecs 
in the lower valley, as I infer from its proximity to the 
extensive ruins of Teotihuican, that have come down 
from a remote and highly-civilized antiquity. 

The valley of the city of Mexico, which lies to the 
south of these hills, is also of an oval shape, but is not 
more than twenty miles in extent. The surface-water 
with which it is saturated is in part fresh, and in other 
parts tequisquite ; that is, where the waters have a cur- 
rent, they are fresh ; but where they remain from year to 
year discharging their volume only by evaporation, then 



THE ANCIENT LAKES. 177 

they become infused with the saline properties of the 
soil,* and all about them is marked with barrenness. If 
the process of evaporation was less intense than it is,f 
all vegetation would die from the extreme humidity 
of the soil; as the gardener's phrase is, it would rot. 
Even in the city of Mexico itself, a couple of feet of dig- 
ging in its alluvial foundation brings you to the water- 
level in the dry season, and seventy or eighty yards of 
boring does not carry you beyond the perceptible influ- 
ence of tequisquite.% The effects of this law of evapora- 
tion puzzled the Aztecs, who were, of course, ignorant 
of all philosophical principles, and could only account 
for the disappearance of the immense mass of water that 
fell in the valley in the wet season, upon the hypothesis 
that the Tezcuco had a leaky bottom, or that there was 
a hole in the lake — an idea that thousands in Mexico 
credit to the present day. This was the origin of that 
absurd story which Cortez repeats in his letters, that 
this lake communicated with the sea, and had its daily 
tides. 

There could not have been a much greater volume of 
water in this marshy valley in the time of Cortez than 
at present, if the whole accumulations of each year were 
to be carried off by evaporation alone from so small a 
surface as is here presented for the sun to act upon. 
But as the volume of water is the turning-point in the 

* There has been much speculation in regard to the origin of the 
saline properties of this water; but the Artesian borings going on while 
I was in Mexico, I think, sufficiently demonstrate that the earthy bot- 
tom of the valley, for hundreds of feet, contains an infusion of carbon- 
ate and muriate of soda. 

f The atmosphere of Mexico is so intensely dry, that the hygrometer 
of Deluc frequently descends to 15°. — Humboldt's J£ssai Politique, vol. 
ii. p. 110. 

X When the Artesian well, in process of construction near my res- 
idence, had reached a depth of seventy yards, the water that came up 
was slightlv impregnated with this salt. 

IT 2 



178 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

history or fable of the conquest, I must adduce the 
proofs and arguments that are at hand to establish this 
statement. The level of the water could not have been 
higher, it is clear, for in that case neither Mexico, Mexi- 
calzingo, or Iztapalapan could have been inhabited. 

Cortez's account of deep waters has often been made 
plausible by adding the hypothesis that the accumulat- 
ing mud of centuries has filled up the lakes, so that they 
now are only shallow ponds. But this by no means re- 
moves the difficulty, for then, as now, the waters of the 
southern laguna flowed into Tezcuco, conveying with 
them the infinitesimal infusion of tequisquite that had 
instilled itself into the Chalco. Had the volume of 
Chalco and Xochimulco been increased several feet, 
then the slight Indian barriers and the long grass would 
no longer have been able to retard the progress of the 
water till evaporation had diminished its quantity, but, 
precipitating itself in a mass into the Tezcuco, it would 
have overwhelmed the town of Tezcuco and all other vil- 
lages upon the shores, and established an equilibrium 
of surface in the two ponds. 

All the lagunas, canals, and ditches that have been 
described are navigated by small scows that draw but a 
few inches of water, which are the medium of an exten- 
sive internal commerce. Through the lagunas and ca- 
nal of Chalco come from Cuatla all the supplies of the 
products of the hot country for the city and surrounding 
region. This commerce exceeds the whole foreign trade 
of the republic* This kind of boat was probably in- 
troduced by Cortez, and in this convenient form his thir- 
teen brigantines were probably made ; for, had his brig- 
antines been of a larger draught of water, they could not 
have navigated canals intended only for Indian canoes. 
One of these vessels, when supplied with a sail, a can- 

* Comercio de Mexico, 1852. 



THE CAUSEWAYS AND CANALS. 179 

non, and a movable keel or side-board, would be a formi- 
dable auxiliary in an assault upon the city at the pres- 
ent day. And if one such scow was placed in the ditch 
on each "side of the southern causeway, as Cortez al- 
leges, it would enable an assailing enemy to present just 
so much more front as the additional width of two boats 
would give him. 

Writers have expressed their surprise at the exist- 
ence of two navigable canals to each causeway, one on 
either side, as an immense expenditure of unnecessary 
labor. The explanation of this is found in the fact that 
in the construction of a pathway (for Cortez says that it 
was only 30 feet in width) through wet and marshy 
ground, a broad ditch is ordinarily made on either side 
to obtain earth for the embankment, and to keep the wa- 
ter-level permanently below the top of the pathway. 
So it is, and so it must always have been at Mexico, in 
order to keep these foot-paths in traveling condition. 
In the dry season, which is the winter, these broad ditch- 
es are covered with floating islands of green " scum ;" 
but in the rainy season, which is the summer, they may 
be navigated by the shallow Mexican scows. A path- 
way of earth thirty feet in width could not endure the 
winds and waves of a navigable lake, or the wear and 
" swash" of a canal twelve feet deep on either side ; and 
the fact that Cortez navigated the ditches in the rainy 
season establishes the insignificant size of his famous 
brigantines. 

As the level of the surface of the land and the surface 
of the water at Mexicalzingo, at Mexico, and at the vil- 
lage Tezcuco, does not materially vary now from what 
it was in the time of Cortez, if we can take for data 
the foundations of the church built by the Conquistadors 
at these several places, we shall have to look to another 
quarter for a supply of water for the city canals, which 



180 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

were sufficiently capacious for canoe navigation. This 
supply we readily obtain "by allowing the waters of the 
canals Tacubaya and Clialco, to pass through the streets 
of the city in ditches sufficiently large for canoes, instead 
of passing along the south and east fronts outside. By 
this hypothesis we obtain a current, a prerequisite to the 
very idea of a canal, particularly in the streets of a city. 

The savans of Europe have shown their profound ig- 
norance of the first principles of canal navigation in tak- 
ing it for granted that the canals of Mexico were filled 
with stagnant water, that had " set back" from the stag- 
nant pond of Tezcuco ; and that the level of the pond 
must at all times have been so high as to fill the canals, 
thus keeping the city in constant danger from any sud- 
den rise in the laguna. But, aside from the rules of 
canal construction, there is an important sanitary ques- 
tion involved. The present ditches in the middle of the 
streets, though they have a perceptible current, and a 
slight infusion of tequisquite, are an intolerable nuisance, 
and have a deleterious effect upon the public health. 
How much more so must they have been when, from the 
uncleanly habits of the Indians, they were the common 
receptacle of all kinds of filth, and were constantly stirred 
up to their very bottoms by the setting-poles of the nav- 
igators ? The system of canalling is a system of slack- 
water navigation, but abhors stagnant water. 

We come next to the question of the dimensions of 
these street canals. We know that they were intended 
only for the navigation of Indian canoes ; that two of 
them, which intersected the causeway of the night retreat, 
Cortez crossed with his army, all of them climbing down 
into the canal, wading across, and then climbing up on 
the other side while loaded with their armor, and fight- 
ing all the time against a superior force of the Aztecs ; 
and that Alvarado actually leaped across one of the open- 



TRUTH AGAINST FICTION. 181 

ings, shows conclusively that the canals could not have 
more than equaled in breadth the present canal of Clial- 
co. On the hypothesis that Cortez used scows that 
drew no more water than the scows that at present navi- 
gate the canals, his story becomes credible, so far, at least, 
as the possibility of making the circuit of the city in 
large boats in a season of rains. 

It is an ungracious task to sift truth from fables. 
One man is displeased at seeing held up as a fiction a 
narrative which he has been accustomed to read with 
pleasure, and to take for truth, because it was elegantly 
written ; and he requires an accumulation of proofs and 
arguments before he will abandon a belief which he has 
adopted without evidence. Another man, who deals only 
in matters of fact, is easily convinced, and is annoyed at 
an accumulation of proofs and arguments where one is 
sufficient. The superstitious man can not, of course, be 
convinced, for his belief does not rest upon evidence ; 
and he is indignant that an attempt should be made to 
detract from the glory obtained by the Virgin Mary and 
the Church in this victory over the infidels. Had I at- 
tempted to prove that the feather which is now preserved 
with so much care in the Church of San Juan de Late- 
ran at Rome did not fall from the wins of the anrrel 

o o 

Gabriel when he came to announce to Mary her concep- 
tion, and that the whole history of that feather was a 
fable, notwithstanding it has received the attestations of 
so many of the Holy Fathers, I should be cursed for my 
impiety no more than I shall be for raising the question 
of the authenticity of the histories of the Conquest. 
With all these difficulties before me, I will venture to 
add one or two more reasons that have induced me to 
doubt the existence of those famous brigantines, which 
required a depth of twelve feet of water. 

Tn support of the hypothesis that the street ditches, 



182 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

called canals, were independent of the Tezcuco for their 
supply, we have still the remains of an old Indian dike, 
which extended from near Iztapalapan, along the east 
part of the city, to Guadalupe or Tepeyaca, which must 
have been intended to shut off the Tezcuco when the 
water was high, and when it receded they probably 
opened a weir at the northern extremity, through which 
the waters of the city that had been discharged upon 
the flats of San Lazaro found an outlet. 

The waters of the valley are now distributed in the 
best possible manner to favor evaporation ; and yet so 
completely is this power taxed, that when, in 1629, a 
water-spout, bursting over the small river Guautitlan, had 
forced the waters of Zumpango over its barriers into the 
San Cristobal, and that again into the Tezcuco, the 
city was inundated to the depth of about three feet. 
Evaporation was unable to remove or materially lessen 
this new volume of water in a period of five years. This 
fully demonstrates that the average annual fall of water 
is equal to the full capacity of evaporation. The valley 
of Mexico is a very small one over which to dispose of 
the mass of water that the mountain-torrents in summer 
and the tropical rains pour into it, and with the small 
margin of six and a half feet for rising and falling, the 
city must have been in constant jeopardy. Still the 
floods have been much less frequent than would have 
been supposed, fully demonstrating the great uniformity 
in the fall of water in the Mexican season of rain. When 
a water-spout occurred in the Chalco in 1446, in the 
time of the Aztec kings, there was a flood, which prob- 
ably ran off into the Tezcuco. Under the Spaniards the 
following floods are enumerated : the first in 1553 ; the 
second in 1580 ; the third in 1604 ; the fourth in 1607 ; 
the fifth in 1629. 

After the flood of 1607, the tunnel of Huehuctoca was 



THE MAP OF COETEZ. 183 

undertaken, and constructed in eleven months, for the 
purpose of letting out of the valley the waters of the 
River Guautitlan, so as to prevent it from falling into 
Tezcuco or flooding the city. For those times it was a 
great work, but we should say now that it was poorly 
engineered and badly managed, and not worthy the 
notice it has received in books on Mexico. Since that 
time, the great inundation of 1629 occurred while the 
mouth of the tunnel was closed. After that time, the 
Spaniards, instead of building inside of the tunnel an 
elliptical tube, actually, by a hundred years of misap- 
plied labor, turned the tunnel into an open cut. 

Cortez furnished a map to illustrate his description. 
This map has the same defect as his narrative ; that is, 
it was untrue at the time he made it. In order to bring 
Tezcuco about the city, he places the village of that name 
due east of Mexico, although he well knew that it was 
nearly north, as the two towns are distinctly in sight, 
although at a distance of about six leagues. Now, if we 
carry the village of Tezcuco and the shore of the lake 
with it to its correct position, we shall have the Laguna 
of Tezcuco in about its present form and size. The 
apology for his defeat at Iztapalapan, by the breaking 
open of the dike and letting in the salt water, is, of course, 
inadequate, as the dike could not have supported a head 
of water sufficient to drown his men, nor could so great 
a head of salt water be obtained at that point. 

In this survey of the ponds of Mexico, I have drawn 
upon the experience which has been acquired in the 
process of evaporation at the extensive salt manufacto- 
ries of Syracuse and the surrounding villages in West- 
ern New York, and also the experience of our engineers 
upon the Erie Canal, and the engineers upon the dikes 
or levees at Sacramento, where the nature of the soil re- 
sembles that of Mexico. And I may now conclude this 



184 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

long survey of the canals and lagunas of Mexico, by 
saying that it is a wise provision of Providence that all 
bodies of water that have no outlet are found to contain 
a considerable infusion of salt, otherwise their accumu- 
lations of decaying matter would be such that mankind 
could not live in their vicinity. This valley is an illus- 
tration of that truth. Tezcuco, surrounded by barren- 
ness, is not deleterious to life, while the fresh-water la- 
gunas, though continually changing their volume, render 
Mexico unhealthy in summer by the gases which they 
exhale from decaying vegetation. 

I have pretty thoroughly described this small valley, 
and have also stated how large a portion of it is flooded 
witli surface-water, and how large a portion of this wa- 
ter is infused with salt. In the vicinity of Tacubaya the 
land is remarkably fertile, and there is good tillable land 
as the mountains are approached, especially about Chal- 
co on the southeast ; but under Indian cultivation, the 
whole of this valley could have produced sustenance for 
only an extremely limited population, if the product of 
the floating gardens and the ducks caught upon the pond 
should be added. It is totally inadequate to feed the 
population of Mexico under the vice-kings, 400,000, or 
its present population Of say 300,000 ; nor could the 
valley itself be made to sustain one third of this. This 
valley, it must be recollected, is inclosed on all sides ex- 
cept the north by mountains that exceed 10,000 feet in 
height, while the commissariat capacity of barbaric tribes 
is not such as to provide extensive supplies from a dis- 
tance. Under such circumstances, we should look for an 
extremely limited population. Yet the most surprising 
part of the story of the conquest is the enormous popu- 
lation assigned to the numerous large cities which they al- 
lege the valley contained. Diaz says, "A series of large 
towns stretched themselves along the banks of the lake, 



ANCIENT POPULATION OF THE VALLEY. 185 

out of which [the lake] still larger ones rose magnifi- 
cently above the water." Cortez says that Iztapalapan 
contained " 10,000 families," which would give the town 
50,000 inhabitants ; " Amaqueruca, 20,000 inhabitants ;" 
" Mexicalzingo, 3000 families," or 15,000 inhabitants; 
"Ayciaca more than 6000 families;" " Huchilohuchico, 
5000 or 6000." The population of Chalco he does not 
give, nor the population of the very numerous villages 
whose names he mentions. At the present day there 
are a few mud huts in nearly every locality named, but 
not enough in any one instance to merit the name of a 
village. And this, I am inclined to believe, was the real 
condition of things in the time of Cortez. The city of 
Mexico alone would have exhausted the limited resources 
of the valley. Old Thomas Gage was as much puzzled 
two hundred years ago to account for this astonishing 
disappearance of the numerous Indian cities of this val- 
ley as we arc, and also for the supposed filling up of the 
lakes, never appearing to suspect that the story of Cor- 
tez was a f ction. 



CHAPTER XYI. 

The Chinaropas or Water Gardens. — Laws of Nature not set aside. — 
Mud Avill not float. — The present Chinampas. — They never could 
have been floating Gardens. — Relations of the Chinampas to the an- 
cient State of the Lake in the Valley. 

All the world lias heard of the floating gardens 
{chinamjpas) of Mexico, but all the world has not seen 
them. I have not seen any floating gardens, nor, on dil- 
igent inquiry, have I been able to find a man, woman, or 
child that ever has seen them, nor do I believe that such 
a thing as a floating garden ever existed at Mexico. 
Humboldt admits that they do exist ; says that he has 
seen floating earthy masses of great size in the tropical 
rivers, and then describes the manner of the construction 
of the chinampas, but in such a way as to satisfy the 
careful reader that he does not intend to say that he saw 
them himself, and evidently makes his statement upon 
hearsay ; and takes it up as an admitted fact, without 
having his mind called to the physical impossibilities of 
floating a mass of earth that was of a greater specific 
gravity than water. * 

When the historians of the Conquest wrote their mar- 
velous narratives of alleged adventures and of the new 
empire, it was a question for the Emperor and the Inqui- 
sition solely, whether their writings should pass for his- 
tory or be condemned as fabulous. With this question 
the people had nothing to do but to believe as it suited 
those in authority. The question being settled that 
the publication of the letters of Cortez as a verity would 
redound to the glory of the Church and the king, then 



FAITH AND TESTIMONY. 187 

it was also settled that there should be no contradiction 
published ; and as these marvelous tales were spread 
abroad throughout Europe, with the masses of silver from 
the newly-discovered mines, men were prepared to be- 
lieve almost any thing — even that rich vegetable mould, 
when saturated with water, could float. 

It not being lawful to promulgate the facts of the Con- 
quest, the memory of events that really transpired ulti- 
mately passed from the recollections of men, so that the 
letters of Cortez were taken for truth, even in their most 
minute details ; so that, in a subsequent century, we find 
a vice-king employing an engineer to search for and clean 
out the hole in the bottom of the Tezcuco ! for, from 
the vice-king down to the most insignificant official, all 
assumed that the letters of Cortez gave a correct picture 
of affairs at that time ; and all showed the greatest em- 
barrassment in accounting for the magnitude of the 
changes that are supposed to have occurred without a 
sufficiently adequate cause. It is a common difficulty 
in all purely Catholic countries, for there the rule of evi- 
dence is an unnatural one. The people have been taught 
to believe from their infancy that the laws of nature can 
be set aside upon every trifling occasion, at the moment- 
ary caprice of any one of the multitude of saints "who 
are to govern the world ;" and on proof that any mortal 
has set aside the laws of nature or wrought a miracle, he at 
once becomes a saint. With these "dutiful children of 
the Church" there can be no fixed laws of evidence ; the 
only ground of belief is, and ever must be, Has the 
statement been sanctioned by the highest authority ? If 
so, it is true ; if not, it is to be doubted, however posi- 
tive the proofs may be. A difficulty that the traveler 
every where encounters is that he can believe nothing 
that he hears, even on the most trifling subject, without 
careful examination and weighing of testimony. As 



188 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

he can not examine every thing himself, he is constantly 
liable to be imposed upon by taking for granted that 
which is every where affirmed. Humboldt for once, with 
all his caution, seems to have fallen into the common 
trap, and credited, without examination, the story of the 
floating gardens. 

The chinampas are formed on the fresh-water mud on 
each side of the canal of Chalco, from the southeast cor- 
ner of the city to a point near the ancient village of Mex- 
icalzingo, and for a part of the way they are on both 
sides of that beautiful but now neglected paseo, Las 
Vegas ; there are also a small number near the cause- 
way of Tacubaya, and in other parts of the marsh ; their 
number might be extended without limit if it was not 
regulated by the demands of the vegetable market of 
Mexico. Chinampas are formed by laying upon the soft 
mud a very thick coating of reeds, or rather rushes, in 
the form and about the size of one of our largest ca- 
nal scows. Between two chinampas a space of about 
half the width of one is left, and from this open space 
the mud is dipped up and poured upon the bed of dry 
rushes, where it dries, and forms a rich " muck" soil, 
which constitutes the garden. As the specific gravity 
of this garden is much greater than that of the water, or 
of the substratum of mud and water combined, it gradu- 
ally sinks down into its muddy foundation ; and in a 
few years it has to be rebuilt by laying upon the top 
of the garden a new coating of rushes and another cov- 
ering of mud. Thus they have been going on for cen- 
turies, one garden being placed upon the top of another, 
and a third placed over all, so soon as the second gives 
signs of being swallowed up in the all-devouring mud. 

The gardeners navigate the open space between their 
islands with light boats ; and during the short hours of 
the morning, the market-boat alongside each island is 



THE CHINAMPAS. 189 

loaded with a cargo of vegetables, fruits, and flowers, 
which are to be displayed in the great market of Santa 
Anna. More pleasing than a drive on the paseo is a 
boat-ride down the canal of Chalco at eventide, when the 
proprietor of each of these little estates is seen standing 
in the canal alongside, and throwing upon his thirsty 
plants a plentiful supply of the tepid canal water, which, 
from every leaf and flower, reflects back the rays of a 
setting sun, that have penetrated the long shadows of 
the trees of Las Vegas. Some of the chinampas have 
small huts upon them, where a gardener lives, who watch- 
es over two or three of these little properties. Sometimes 
also shrubs, and even trees, are planted along the edges, 
which yield both fruits and flowers, and serve to keep the 
dry earth from falling into the water. When looking at 
one of the largest and best cared for chinampas, the be- 
holder can hardly divest himself of the idea that it is a 
floating island, and might well have been the residence of 
Calypso. 

This is the whole of the story of the chinampas, the 
most fertile and beautiful little gardens upon the face of 
the earth. A correct picture of them would be poetry 
enough, without the addition of falsehood ; for whether 
it is the rainy season or the dry season, it is always the 
same to them. They know no exclusive seed-time, and 
have no especial season for harvest ; but blossoms and 
ripe fruits grow side by side, and flowers flourish at all 
seasons. As market gardens they are unrivaled, and to 
them Mexico is indebted for its abundant supplies. 

The evidence that Humboldt* produces in favor of float- 
ing gardens, viz., that he saw floating islands of some 30 
feet in length in the midst of the current of rivers, 
amounts to little in this case ; for eveiy one that has 
traveled extensively in tropical lowlands has seen veg- 

* Essai Politique, vol. ii. p. 61. 



190 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

etation spring up upon floating masses of brush-wood. 
Where earth torn from the river bank is so bound to- 
gether by living roots as to form a raft, it will always 
float for a little while upon the current, provided that its 
specific gravity does not materially exceed that of the 
water ; and those grasses that flourish best in water will 
spring up and grow upon these islands. Peat, too, in 
bogs, will float and form islands, for the simple reason 
that it is of less specific gravity than water ; and veg- 
etation will also spring up on these peat islands. But 
all this furnishes no evidence that the invariable law of 
nature, which carries to the bottom the heaviest body, 
has been suspended at Mexico. Had the floating gar- 
dens been built in large boats made water-tight, they 
might have floated. But, unfortunately, the Indians had 
not the means for constructing such boats. Even tim- 
ber-rafts would have become saturated in time, and sunk, 
as rafts of logs do if kept too long in the "mill-pond," 
waiting to be sawed into lumber. 

There is another law of nature, which must not be lost 
sight of, which is at war w T ith the idea of a garden float- 
ing on a bed of rushes ; and that is capillary attraction, 
which would raise particles of water, one by one, among 
the fibres of the rushes until the frail raft on which 
the earth rested was saturated ; and still pressing up- 
ward, the busy drops would penetrate the superincum- 
bent earth, moistening and adding to the specific gravity 
of the garden by filling the porous earth until it became 
too heavy to float, if it ever had floated. 

Nearly three hundred years had passed away before 
men ventured to question the truth of the statement 
that the gardens along the canal of Chalco ever floated, 
and then it seemed like temerity to raise the question, 
even if it were only a popular fallacy. It has therefore 
been treated by all modern writers as a well-established 



THE CHINAMPAS. 191 

matter, and one of not sufficient importance to justify its 
minute investigation. With me the question was a far 
different one. I had, after careful inquiry and observa- 
tion, come to the conclusion that the marshes of the val- 
ley of Mexico were, in the time of Cortez, substantially 
in the condition in which we find them at the present 
day ; that the filling up they had undergone in that 
time was counterbalanced by the relief they had gained 
by the canal of Huehuetoca. The chinampas constitute 
an important link in the chain of proofs to establish this 
fact. If I have succeeded in showing that these gar- 
dens of the Aztecs, instead of floating upon the water, 
rested upon the muddy bottom, it follows as a matter of 
course that the depth of the water in the laguna could 
not, in the day of the Aztecs, have been materially great- 
er than it now is, - • .--..^^^y.--.*^.. -■»..., .u 



CHAPTER XVII. 

The gambling Festival of San Augustine. — Suppressed by Government. 
— The Losses of the Saint by the Suppression of Gambling. — How 
Travelers live in the Interior. — A Visit to the Talace. 

I have already said that my first entry into the val- 
ley of Mexico was from the south, through the suburban 
city of Tlalpan, where in good old times was held the 
great gambling festival of San Augustine. The advanc- 
ing morality of our day has put an extinguisher on this 
noted festival, which was one of the most noted days in 
the Mexican calendar. Crowds flocked to it to gamble, 
to dance, and to adore the most holy Saint Augustine- 
To a looker-on it was hard to say whether it was the 
devil or the saint whom the people had come to wor- 
ship. The chief business of high-born dames seemed to 
be to make a display of their taste in dress, and to set 
off the whole contents of their wardrobe ; for five times 
in each day was their entire wardrobe changed, and so 
often did they appear in a new set of jewels. To this 
festival came also noblemen and highway robbers, to 
gamble and to rob each other, and to be robbed by the 
women at the monte table. In honor of the saint, the 
city was crowded with monks, and thieves, and Magda- 
lens, and the dignitaries of the Church and state. The 
rich and the poor came together to enjoy the saturnalia in 
honor of the most blessed Saint Augustine. Gambling 
was here duly sanctified by the participation of the 
priests, who were here, as they are every where in Mex- 
ico, the most expert gamblers at the tables. While this 
festival continued, money changed hands more rapidly 



GAMBLING AT TLALPAN. 193 

than in California in her worst days. Five dances a 
day were the pastime ; but at the monte table was the 
solid sport. This was the great attraction that had call- 
ed all the crowd together. It was an exciting scene to 
see the ounces piled up as men got excited in the game. 
What is there left of woman's virtue, when the highest 
ladies of the court stake their ounces at a public gaming- 
table, and poorer ones eagerly throw down their last 
piece of silver ? Woman's rights have not yet reached 
that point with us that she may gamble and get drunk 
without losing caste ; and God grant they never may. 

It is a consolation to be able to add that the late gov- 
ernment of the State of Mexico had sufficient firmness 
to suppress this abominable festival of the Church, much 
to the pecuniary disadvantage of the saint and his priest- 
hood. Indeed, there is now no public gambling, not 
even in the city of Mexico, except the lottery of the Acad- 
emy of Fine Arts, and the lottery which is monthly drawn 
to promote the adoration of our Lady of Guadalupe. 
This last is one of the most corrupting of all lotteries. 
Tickets for as small a price as a Spanish shilling are 
hawked about the street, and by the exhibition of a splen- 
did scheme the poor Indians are tempted to venture their 
last real in the hopes of winning a rich prize, through 
the kind interposition of the Virgin, to whom they are 
taught to pray for that purpose. It is true that a mass 
is performed for the benefit of all losers, but this mass 
has never had the power of restoring to the poor Indian 
his lost shilling. 

Let us now go from this place, where gambling used 
annually to have its festival, or, rather, harvest of vic- 
tims, into the cathedral church of San Augustine, to 
whom the lucky gamblers were accustomed to dedicate 
a part of their winnings, that thus they might sanctify 
their unrighteous calling by bringing robbery to the saint 

I 



194 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

for an offering. Poor saint ! how much he and his priests 
have suffered by this wanton interference of the civil 
government in Church affairs — this prohibition of monte- 
playing in honor of the festival of San Augustine! 
There was much in this church to admire, and much of 
that gold displayed which gamblers are accustomed to 
lavish upon their idols. It seemed like another worship 
and another religion from that which I had been accus- 
tomed to witness in the humble chapels of the Pintos, in 
whose country I had so long been wandering. 

Again I was in the saddle, and soon upon that noted 
causeway by which Cortez entered the city of Mex- 
ico. It has lost none of its attractions in the course of 
centuries, but has been kept in fine repair as a carriage- 
road, while the venerable trees that line it on either side 
look as old as the time of the Conquistadors. This noble 
carriage-way, through the marshy ground of the valley 
of Mexico, is an enlargement of the old causeway of the 
Indians, or, rather, it has been built over and around it, 
that having been less than thirty feet in width. I soon 
arrived at Churubusco, the scene of one of the bloody 
battles of the American campaign in this valley. There 
was little here to look at, and I hurried on and entered 
the south gate of the city, and soon arrived at the Hotel 
de Paris, to which I had been directed. My poor old 
mustang here ended a twelve days' journey, over mount- 
ains and plains of pedregal, without a shoe to his hoofs. 

A party of Californians, who had been stopping here 
for some weeks, had left the day before, and I was ush- 
ered into French society, in which to form my first im- 
pressions of Mexico. Still, there was an exquisite pleas- 
ure in once more getting clean, and eating food cooked 
after a civilized manner. Not that I had in any wise 
become tired of drinking porridge, extracted from corn, 
called atola, or dissatisfied with eating bits of fowl, which 



ABODE IN MEXICO. 195 

the maid of honor to General Garay so ingeniously served 
up with her fingers, after having it well flavored with 
Cayenne or Chili pepper! He that does not love Chili 
must keep out of Spanish America. And he will prove 
a poor traveler who can not sit down with a good appe- 
tite to a supper of small black beans (Jrijoles), and a 
dozen Indian cakes (tortillas), as thin and as tough as a 
drum-head, which serve the double purpose of spoon and 
plate. 

My room was on the roof, and when my inner and 
outer man was fully in order, I used to walk till a late 
hour of the day upon the paved house-top, now leaning 
against the parapet and looking up to the snow-covered 
mountains, whose shadowy forms could be made out even 
by moonlight, and upon the shadowy towers and domes 
of the city. Thus pleasant days and weeks flew on. 
Sometimes I rode about the valley, carefully searching 
after the relics of times past, and at other times survey- 
ing the curiosities of the city. Once this order was 
broken in upon, in order to accompany that noble-heart- 
ed man and excellent embassador, Governor Letcher, to 
the palace, where I had an interview with Arista, then 
the President of Mexico, who strikingly resembled our 
own President of that day, Millard Fillmore. 



CHAPTER XYIII. 

Visit to Contreras and San Angel. — The End of a brave Soldier. — A 
Place of Skulls. — A New England Dinner. — An Adventure with Rob- 
bers — doubtful. — Reasons for revisiting Mexico. — The Battle at the 
Mountain of Crosses. — A peculiar Variety of the Cactus. — Three Men 
gibbeted for robbing a Bishop. — A Court upon Horseback. — The re- 
treat of Cortez to Otumba. — A venerable Cypress Grove. — Unexpect- 
edly comfortable Quarters. — An English Dinner at Tezcuco. — Pleas- 
ures unknown to the Kings of Tezcuco. — Relics of Tezcuco. — The 
Appearance of the Virgin Mary at Tezcuco. — The Causeways of 
Mexico. 

The ride to San Angel has this advantage over all 
others out of Mexico, that the road is nearly all the way 
upon dry land, thus presenting a pleasant contrast to the 
gloominess of all the others, except the Tacuba road. 
There is less of stagnant water, and little appearance of 
tequisquite. It is lined with fields of corn and maguey. 
Contreras is upon this road — the point where Santa An- 
na's line of defenses was first broken, and broken in the 
same way as at Cerro Gordo, and by the same officer, 
the late General Riley. It was the defect of all Mexi- 
can military operations, that they were not sufficiently 
on the look-out for night attacks. In the night Riley 
had been allowed to get behind the position of his ad- 
versary at Cerro Gordo ; and here again he got behind 
and above him, by crawling up a ravine in a foggy night, 
from which point he charged Valencia in reverse. That 
successful charge of the brave old soldier raised him to 
the brevet rank of Major General, and sealed the fate of 
the city. 

What sort of a victory has it proved to the hero of 
this battle ? He had spent the best portion of his life 



A KIDE TO SAN ANGEL. 197 

in the Indian territory, arranging difficulties, appeasing 
strifes, overawing the turbulent, and restraining the law- 
lessness of white intruders. And now he had become 
an old man, with the rank only of Major, as he had 
no kind friend at court. But the Mexican war opened 
to him the prospect of winning a " sash" or of being 
brought home in a coffin. The sash was won, but the 
coffin was near at hand ; for, while he was gaining his 
laurels, he contracted a cancer, which in a short time aft- 
er his return from a distant command, consigned him to 
the home prepared for all living. Forty long years had 
he followed the profession of arms, and endured its hard- 
ships without a murmur ; yet, when he laid down his 
sword to die, he had nothing to leave to his children but 
the commissions Congress had awarded him on his Cal- 
ifornia revenues. War is a hard trade for the bravest 
of the brave, and with very few prizes except to political 
favorites, who with high-sounding titles, but without mil- 
itary experience, ride by the side of some brave subal- 
tern, gather his laurels, and enjoy the fruits of his expe- 
rience. 

A slight breastwork and a heap of bones and skulls 
mark the site of this gallant exploit of General Riley. 
And we fancied that we could select the American skulls 
from the common mass, as they clearly belonged to two 
distinct races of men ; one set of skulls being thin and 
firm, while the other was thick and porous. We rode 
on, and soon came to San Angel, where were many pleas- 
ant places for suburban residences, and an immense con- 
vent garden celebrated for its fruits. But now all was 
parched and dry, for it was midwinter, which is here the 
middle of the dry season, and it was not yet the time 
for the new foliage to appear upon the trees, for that does 
not take place till February. 

The occasion of our ride was an invitation to dine 



198 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

with an American family at the paper-mill of Mr. M'ln- 
tosh, the English banker. This was the greatest treat 
that I had yet met with in Mexico. Though I have had 
the honor of dining in more distinguished places, both in 
Mexico and in the United States, I never attended a din- 
ner-party that I enjoyed so much. It was a thrifty fam- 
ily, and a charming old-fashioned New England house- 
wife had prepared the dinner. Perhaps this is saying- 
enough to enable the reader to fill out the picture, for he 
will be sure to guess that pumpkin-pies were not forgot- 
ten ; for what would a down-east thanksgiving dinner 
be without this national dish ? The dinner was a charm 
in itself, while the attendant circumstances gave it a 
double relish. To complete the pleasure of the visit, we 
made our way into "the Yankee's" kitchen, and there 
had the pleasure of seeing a cooking-stove, and cooking- 
furniture of tin, copper, and iron, displayed after the most 
approved fashion. Verily this universal Yankee nation 
preserves its distinctive characteristics every where ! 

On our way home we must needs have an adventure. 
But whether the party that overtook us on the road were 
really robbers, or only pleasure-seekers hurrying to es- 
cape from the rain, I have my doubts to the present day. 
But my ministerial companion, who was more experi- 
enced in such matters, having been kept here a long time 
by our government to look after the unburied American 
dead, insisted that it was a genuine case of attempted 
robbery. All I can say in the premises is, that eight 
California robbers would not have run off in that style 
without first ascertaining whether that old revolver had 
any powder in it or not. When we squared up for a 
fight, they might have known that it was because my old 
mustang would not move ; and they could have had all 
our availables for the asking ; but it was saving time in 
them to run when they heard us call out in that hated 



AN ADVENTUKE. 199 

"Yankee language," and they did scamper off most ex- 
peditiously. 

We got back to the city, without a wetting and with- 
out a chance of getting frightened, where the faithful old 
mustang and I parted company forever. Ten Mexican 
dollars was the market value of horse, saddle, and bridle 
— less than the cost of his city eating, which he had en- 
joyed with a gusto ; and we took diverse ways at parting. 
The faithful old fellow went to the silver mines, and I 
returned to the United States, after an absence of three 
years and more, in which I had been through perils by 
land and perils by water, but not sufficient to satisfy my 
taste for adventure. 

Up to this time I was a firm believer in the story of 
Cort^z. But when I had retired from active duties, I 
began to think of writing a book. I did what no other 
foreign writer on Mexico has yet done — I made a jour- 
ney to the country at my own charges. I was not in 
the employment of any company or any government ; I 
was under no obligation to praise any man who did not 
deserve it, and not disposed to speak unnecessary evil of 
any, whether they deserved it or not. My advantages 
above most writers upon Mexico were these : my inde- 
pendent position, and my intimate knowledge of the char- 
acter of the North American Indians, acquired before I 
had gained any preconceived notions from the writings 
of others. My father, who had lived among the Iroquois, 
or Six Nations, in the family of Joseph Brandt, and went 
through the usual forms of adoption in place of some In- 
dian who had died, gave me my first lessons on Indian 
character ; and a taste so early acquired I followed up 
in after life. My ancestors for several generations dwelt 
near the Indian agency at Cherry Valley, on " Wilson's 
Patent," and in a neighboring village was I born, but 
removed early in life to a part of the country that had 



200 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

"belonged to the Senecas, where I enjoyed a good oppor- 
tunity of studying Indian character. 

It was the feast-day of the kings, los Reyes, when, 
after my return to Mexico, I was again in the saddle, 
riding out from Mexico toward the village of Tezcuco. 
I had to take a "by-way to avoid the Guadalupe road, 
which was blocked up in consequence of the holiday. 
In doing so, I had to leap a ditch or canal, in which both 
I and my horse came near closing our pilgrimage in a 
quagmire ; but in time we were again upon the road. 
It is a dreary place about the hill of Tepeyaca, or Gua- 
dalupe, and if the Virgin had not smiled upon the barren 
hill and made roses grow out of it, it would be as unin- 
viting as one of the hills of the valley of Sodom. This 
hill is now called the " Mountain of Crosses," for upon 
it, in 1810, the first insurgent, Hidalgo, the priest of 
Dolores, won a battle against the royal troops, which 
should have been followed up by an entry into Mexico ; 
but Providence ordered it otherwise, and the forest of 
crosses that once covered it proclaimed a bloody slaugh- 
ter without any results. 

The shores of Tezcuco approach the hill in the wet 
season, leaving but a narrow margin for the road, but 
in the dry season this margin is greatly enlarged. I 
have already explained the composition of tequisquite, 
and the manner of its production ; here it was lying in 
courses, or spots, as it had been left by the receding and 
drying up of the water during the present dry season. 
Little piles of it had been gathered up here and there to 
be taken to town for use, probably by the bakers or soap- 
boilers, who are said to pay fourteen shillings an aroba for 
it. Besides a little stunted grass, there was here no 
sign of vegetable life except a peculiar species of the 
cactus family, which resembled a mammoth beet with- 
out leaves, but bearing upon its top an array of vege- 



FATE OF ROBBEES. 201 

table knives that surrounded a most exquisite scarlet 
flower. 

There was another sight by the road side more in keep- 
ing with the gloomy thoughts which this desert plain ex- 
cites : it was the dead bodies of three men, who had 
been condemned by a military commission for robbing a 
bishop. They were shot, and their bodies were placed 
on three gibbets as a warning to others. The bishop 
said he would have pardoned the robbery, but when they 
went to that extreme limit of depravity of searching with- 
in his shirt of sackcloth for concealed doubloons, it was 
more than a bishop could endure. The worthy ecclesi- 
astic had renounced the world and all its vanities, and 
had put on the badges of poverty and self-mortification 
for $50,000 a year, and he wore the disguises that ought 
to have shielded him from the suspicion of being rich ! 

These military commissions are no new invention in 
Mexico, for that famous Count de Galvez, the Vice-king 
who built the castle of Chapultepec and deposed the 
Archbishop of Mexico, had a traveling military court, 
with chaplain and all spiritual aids, to accompany the 
dragoons that scoured the road in search of robbers. 
When a fellow was caught, court, chaplains, and dra- 
goons made rapid work in dismissing him to his long rest- 
ing-place, and saying a cheap mass for the repose of his 
soul, and then again they were ready for another enter- 
prise. In this way the roads were made safe in the 
times of that Viceroy. 

Had I known the real distance to Tezcuco, I ought 
to have abandoned the journey on account of the lame- 
ness of my horse. But either the Virgin Mary, or, more 
probably, the extreme purity of the atmosphere on these 
elevated plains, had deprived me of the power of measur- 
ing distance by the eye. This is excessively annoying 
to a traveler. He sees the object he is attempting to 

12 



202 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

approach at an apparently moderate distance, plain in 

sight, and as he rides along, hour after hour, there it 

stands, just where it seemed to be when he first got sight 

of it. I finally reached my destination in good time for 

a dinner, and for as good a night's " entertainment for 

man and beast" as could be found in all the Republic of 

Mexico. 

When I turned the head of the lake, I was close upon 

the track which Cortez and his retreating band followed 

into the plains of Otumba. Poor wretches ! what a time 

they must have had of it in this disconsolate retreat — 

wounded, jaded, like tigers bereft of their prey ! They 

mourned for their companions slain, but most of all for 

the booty they had lost. 

" They grieved for those that went down in the cutter, 
And also for the biscuits and the butter :" 

and hobbled on, as best they could, while the natives 
pursued them with hootings and volleys of inefficient 
weapons.- Passing this point and turning to the north- 
east, they entered the plains of Otumba, where they en- 
countered the whole undisciplined rabble of the Aztecs, 
and scattered them like chaif before the wind. 

Soon after I had passed the head of the lake and 
turned southward, I entered a cultivated country between 
tilled grounds and little mud villages along the road. 
These were the representatives of the magnificent cities 
enumerated by Cortez. That fine grove of cypresses 
which had been a landmark all day was now close at 
hand, and I could form some idea of its great antiquity. 
But the day was passing away, and it was still uncer- 
tain whether I could find safe quarters for the night, 
where my horse, and the silver plates on my bridle, and 
the silver mountings of my saddle would be safe. I 
never own such fancy trifles, but they were on the horse 
given me at the stable. 



A NIGHT AT TEZCUCO. 203 

A good dinner and a clean bed I did not expect to 
find, nor could I have found them a year earlier. But 
the new and enterprising company of Escandon and Co., 
who now have the possession of the Real del Monte sil- 
ver mines, of which I shall speak hereafter, had just 
completed the "Grand House" (Oasa Grande) in con- 
nection with the salt manufacture, which they carry on 
here solely for the use of that single mine. It was a 
neat, one-story residence of dried mud (adobe), and wor- 
thy the occupancy of the proudest king of Tezcuco. 
Though the flagging of the interior court was not all 
completed, yet the managing partner had taken posses- 
sion, and it was fitted up according to the most approved 
style of an Anglo-Saxon residence. As horse and rider 
passed into the outer court, there stood ready a groom 
to lead the former into the inner court, where were the 
stables for the horses, and I entered the house to enjoy 
the unlooked-for pleasures of English hospitality in this 
out-of-the-way Indian village. 

The resident partner was an Englishman. His con- 
nection with the Real del Monte Company extended only 
to the manufacture of salt. But even this was an ex- 
tensive affair, and had already absorbed an investment 
of $100,000, in order to provide the salt used in only 
one branch of the process of refining silver at that mine. 
The gentleman was now absent, but his excellent En- 
glish wife and her brother knew full well how to dis- 
charge the duties of host even to an unknown stranger. 
The dinner was of the best, and there was no lack of 
appetite after a hard day's ride on a trotting horse. So 
we all had the prime elements of enjoyment. Enter- 
tainment for man and beast is among the highest luxu- 
ries to be found by the wayside. It was an equal lux- 
ury to my hosts in their isolated residence to receive a 
visit from one whose only recommendation was that the 



204 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

English language was his native tongue, so that when 
we retired from the dining-room we had become old ac- 
quaintances. 

The King of Tezcuco never knew what it was, on a 
raw winter's evening, to sit before a "bright wood fire, in 
a fire-place, with feet on fender and tongs in hand, list- 
ening to an animated conversation so mixed up of two 
languages that it was hard to tell which predominated. 
Not all the stateliness to be found in Mexican palaces, 
where, in a lordly tapestried halls, men and women sit 
and shiver over a protracted dinner, can yield pleasures 
like those grouped around an English fireside. The 
evening was not half long enough to say all that was to 
be discussed. As we sat and chatted, and drank our tea 
with a gusto we had never known before, we forgot alto- 
gether that we were indulging in plebeian enjoyments 
upon the spot where a king's palace had probably stood. 
Instead of such plebeian things as a wood floor and 
Brussels carpet, his half-clad majesty had here squatted 
upon a mat, and dealt out justice or injustice, according 
to his caprice, to trembling crowds of dirty Indians, 
whose royal rags and feathers made them princely. Dig- 
nity and majesty are truly parts of Indian character, but 
a good dinner and a clean bed are luxuries that an In- 
dian, even though he were an emperor, never knew. 

My business here was to search for relics, and as soon 
as daylight appeared I was astir. But no relics could be 
found except some stone images so rudely cut as to be 
a burlesque upon Indian stone-cutting. There was a 
sacrificial stone and a calendar stone built into the steps 
of the church of San Francisco, which were so badly 
done that the use to which they had been applied could 
just be made out. Here, too, was a rude stone wall, that 
had been built over the grave of Don Fernando, the first 
Christian king of Tezcuco, who had been converted to 



REMAINS OF TEZCUCO. 205 

Christianity by Cortez. There is also here one of those 
little chapels which Cortez built, which indicate extreme- 
ly limited means in the builder. 

At the distance of a bow-shot from this is the site of 
the " slip" (canal) which Cortez says he caused to be 
dug, twelve feet wide and twelve feet deep, in order to 
float his brigantines. Near by, the Indians were dig- 
ging a new canal for the little steam-boat which now 
plies on the laguna. When they reached a point less 
than three feet from the surface, they were stopped by 
the water. How could Cortez, under greater disadvan- 
tages, dig to the depth of twelve feet, without even iron 
shovels ? 

I returned to the hacienda and inquired if there were 
no other relics. The proprietor assured me that he had 
been unable to find any except the Indian mounds which 
he showed me, and some stone cellar steps that he had 
found in digging. And this is all that now remains of 
the great and magnificent city of Tezcuco, which had en- 
tered into alliance with Cortez, and which, for more than 
a hundred years after the Conquest, was under the es- 
pecial care of a Superintendent sent from Spain, as an 
Indian Reservation. 

There are here eight Franciscan monks and a convent ; 
seven of these monks I was assured were living at home 
with their families and children, but the eighth, who hap- 
pened to be a cripple, lived in the convent. A major in 
the guard was pointed out to me, who, having commit- 
ted a murder, took sanctuary in the church, where he 
remained several days, when — and we have his own word 
for it— the Virgin Mary appeared to him and freely for- 
gave him. On this news getting abroad, there was great 
rejoicing in Tezcuco that the Virgin had at last visited 
them. From being stigmatized as a murderer, the ob- 
ject of this visit was almost adored as a saint, and be- 



206 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

came one of the principal men of the village, and was 
created a major in the new corps. 

After I had surveyed the salt-works and the glass- 
works, I turned my horse's head toward Mexico by the 
road along the eastern shore, so that I made the complete 
circuit of Lake Tezcuco. 

Thus far my visit to the royal city of Tezcuco had 
"been perfectly successful, except in the attempts made to 
convince the young Englishman that I was not a dead- 
shot with the rifle ; and I started home with a slight 
shade upon my veracity for denying my ability to pierce 
the centre of the bull's-eye. But otherwise it was a dis- 
agreeable parting to all of us. As I returned by the 
east side of the lake, the splendid high farming-lands 
that extend from the shore to the foot of the mountain 
were strikingly in contrast with the flatness and barren- 
ness of the plain on the water-side, which is so slightly 
elevated above the level of the salt water that a few inch- 
es of rise in the laguna spreads out an immense sheet of 
saline water, and yet there is not a solitary evaporating 
vat where there is an unlimited demand for the evapora- 
ted article at fourteen shillings the aroba. 

Cortez speaks of the fine fields of corn on the east 
side of the lake. But they could not have been finer in 
his day than they are at present, though they furnished 
him with the supplies that supported his army. I reached 
the head of Tezcuco at noontide, where the heavy water 
of the salt lake was driving up toward the fresh water, 
as described by Cortez, but it was under the pressure 
of a strong north wind. 

Now that I am on the new causeway, broad and spa- 
cious like all the others, it may be well to conclude the 
discussion of the physical condition of this valley by de- 
termining the size of the old Aztec causeways. 

An island embosomed in a marsh has always formed 



THE AZTEC CAUSEWAYS. 207 

a favorite retreat for an Indian tribe, whether among the 
everglades of Florida, or the wild-rice swamps of north- 
western Canada. Such a retreat is still more desirable 
when, in addition to the security it affords from an ene- 
my, it is likewise a resort for wild ducks, as was and is 
the case with the laguna of the Mexican valley. Hence, 
probably, the Aztecs selected this place as the site of 
their village ; and to reach it, it was necessary to make 
one or more footpaths across the marsh. As the Aztecs 
had no beasts of burden, this must have been a task of 
no little magnitude. To have made it thirty feet wide 
would not only have been a work of immense difficulty, 
but would have destroyed the defensive character of their 
position. Still, we can, upon this occasion, afford to be 
a little liberal with the statements of Cortez, as we have 
had to cut his hundreds of thousands of warriors down to 
a few thousand of miserably-armed Indians, and reduce 
his magnificent cities to small Indian villages. In order 
to make the island of Mexico at all inhabitable, we have 
had to reduce his lakes from navigable basins of twelve 
feet or more in depth to mere evaporating ponds. His 
floating islands have been transformed into garden-beds 
built upon the mud ; and his canals have sunk to mere 
ditches. Now I propose to be liberal to the old Con- 
quistador in the matter of his famous causeways, and will 
therefore admit that they might have been twelve feet in 
width — as broad as the tow-path of the Erie Canal. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The Street of Tacuba. — The Spaniards and the Indian Women. — The 
Retreat of Cortez. — The Aqueducts of Mexico. — The English and 
American Burying-grounds. — The Protestant President. — The rival 
Virgins. — An Image out of Favor. — The Aztecs and the Spaniards. 

As I rode along the street to the gate and causeway 
of Tacuba, over which Cortez retreated on the " sorrow- 
ful night" (triste noche), I naturally fell into reflections 
upon the righteous retribution that overtook a portion of 
the Spanish robbers on that night, and upon the myste- 
rious ways of Providence in allowing Cortez and a rem- 
nant to escape being burned alive by the Indians after 
the infamous lives which, by their own admissions, they 
had been leading in the city. The Indians had made a 
feeble resistance when Alvarado murdered their chiefs, 
and had cringed into submission when Cortez returned. 
But now their wrongs had reached, that point where even 
Aztecs could endure no more. Their cup of iniquity 
seemed full, when Cortez, who had left a wife in Cuba, 
sent to the little village of Tacuba, called by Diaz Tla- 
cupa, to fetch thence some "women of his household, 
among whom was the daughter of Montezuma [he had 
already one daughter of Montezuma in his power] whom 
he had given in charge of the King of Tlacupa, her rela- 
tive, when he marched against Narvaez."* The women 
being rescued, Cortez afterward sent Ordaz, with four 
hundred men, which brought on hostilities that ended in 
this night retreat. 

Cortez was worse than the Mormon governor of Utah, 

* Bernal Diaz, vol. i. p. 338. 



THE HOUSEHOLD OF COKTEZ. 209 

who is said to have thirty-six wives in his household. 
But they are, at least, voluntary inmates of his harem, 
while the " household" of Cortez had been taken by vio- 
lence. It is one of the prominent traits of Indian char- 
acter that, while they are inhuman to their female cap- 
tives, they guard with the utmost jealousy the virtue of 
their wives. Even among the debased Indians of Cali- 
fornia, female infidelity is punished with death ; and I 
have seen the whole population of an Indian village on 
the Upper Sacramento thrown into the utmost confusion 
— the women howling, and the men brandishing their 
weapons — because a base Indian had sold his wife to a 
still baser white man. " Such a thing was never," they 
said, "done in the tribe before." And here we have 
Cortez, in contempt of even Indian notions of virtue, 
sending to bring to his harem, by violence, another daugh- 
ter of Montezuma. 

As Bernal Diaz goes more into detail than Cortez, he 
now and then drops an expression that furnishes a clew 
to many an enigma otherwise unexplainable. In speak- 
ing of the avarice of the officers, he lets fall the following 
confession of his own infamy : 

" This was a good hint to us in future, so that after- 
ward, when we had captured any beautiful Indian fe- 
males, we concealed them, and gave out that they had es- 
caped. As soon as it was come to the marking day, or, 
if any one of us stood in favor with Cortez, he got them 
secretly marked [viz., branded with a red-hot iron] dur- 
ing the night-time, and paid a fifth of their value to him. 
In a short time we possessed a great number of such 
slaves."* 

Never was there a band of Anglo-Saxon outlaws, cut- 
throats, pirates, or buccaneers that reached that point of 
human depravity that they could brand, as cattle are 
* Bernal Diaz, vol. i. p. 31, 32. 



210 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

branded, with a red-hot iron, swarms of women taken by 
violence, in order that they might not make any mistakes 
in recognizing their numberless wives ! None but Span- 
ish heroes of a " holy war" ever exhibited such a picture 
of total depravity. 

When the Aztecs were thus roused to action by the 
brutal lust of Cortez, they assailed him with phrensy 
rather than with courage, until his quarters in the city 
became untenable, and then this night retreat was un- 
dertaken, in which all the gold, if there really was any, 
and all other treasures, and two sons and one daughter 
of Montezuma, were lost in the confused rush of such a 
multitude over this foot-path. The Indian story is that 
Cortez slew the children of Montezuma when he found 
himself unable to carry them off. Perhaps he did, but 
the probability is that they perished by chance, or, rath- 
er, it seems to have been by chance that Cortez or any 
of his gang escaped and came safe to Tacuba. 

We must now give up history to talk of things by the 
road-side. 

The " hard water" from the springs on the south side 
of Chapultepec is carried over stone arches upon the 
causeway of Tacubaya to the gate of Belin. But at 
Santa Fe, several leagues distant from the city, is a 
stream of soft water, which is brought to the powder- 
mill (Molina del Hey), where it turns a wheel. Thence 
the aqueduct, passing by the north side of Chapultepec, 
is carried along the highway to the causeway of San 
Cosmo. It passes the gate of San Cosmo, enters the 
city, and terminates in the street of Tacuba. By these 
two gates, and by the side of these two parallel aque- 
ducts, the American army entered the city of Mexico. 

The objects of interest by the road-side, after I had 
passed the city gate, were, first, the French Academy, 
which is well worthy of a visit for its pretty grounds, if 



THE AMEKICAN CEMETERY. 211 

nothing more. When we had got farther on, the land 
rose a little above the water-level of the swamp. Here 
a branch-road and the aqueduct turned off to Chapulte- 
pec, and in the angle thus formed by the two roads is 
the English burying-ground or cemetery. In this rest- 
ing-place of the dead there is not a spot that can not be 
irrigated at all seasons of the year, while the art of man 
has been busy in improving the advantages that nature 
has so lavishly bestowed. 

Just before my first arrival in Mexico, public attention 
had been particularly directed to this quiet spot, from its 
having been chosen as the place for depositing the ashes 
of the last President of Mexico, at whose burial no holy 
water had been wasted and no candles had been burned, 
and for the repose of whose soul no masses had ever been 
said, or other religious rites performed, and yet he slept 
as quietly as those who had gone to their burial with the 
pomp and circumstance of a state funeral. No priest 
had shrived his soul, his lips had not been touched with 
the anointing oil, nor was incense burned at his funeral ; 
yet he died in peace, declaring in his last hours that he 
had made his confession to God, and trusted in him for 
the pardon of his sins, and refused all the proffered aid 
of priests in facilitating his journey to heaven. Thus 
died, and here was privately buried, the first and last 
Protestant President of Mexico, the only really good 
man that ever occupied that exalted station, and prob- 
ably the only native Mexican who ever had the moral 
courage to denounce the religion of his fathers upon his 
dying bed. 

Adjoining the English cemetery on the south side is 
the American burying-ground, which has been establish- 
ed since the war, where have been collected the remains 
of 750 Americans, that died or were killed at Mexico, 
and a neat monument has been erected over them. Here 



212 



MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 




MONUMENT TO THE AMERICANS. 



Americans that die henceforth in that city can be buried. 
An appropriation of $500 a year would make this more 
attractive than the English cemetery, but the place has 
been wholly neglected by Congress since that worthy 
man, the Rev. G. G. Goss, completed his labors. There 
is a pleasure in observing the natural affinities which, in 
foreign countries, draw close together these two branches 
of the Anglo-Saxon family. A common language and a 
common religion overmaster political differences, and the 
English and American dead are laid side by side to rest 
until the judgment. At the south of the American cem- 
etery is a vacant lot, which the King of Prussia should 
purchase, so that the Germans may no longer be de- 
pendent on Americans for a burying-place, and that the 



THE YIKGIN QE KEMEDIES- 213 

three great Protestant powers of the world may here, as 
they every where should, be drawn close together. 

Tacnba is a very small village, and is not in any wise 
noted except for an immense cypress-tree, that must have 
been a wonder even in the time of Cortez. Tacuba has 
the historical notoriety of being the place where hostili- 
ties first broke out between the Aztecs and the Spaniards, 
and the spot where the night retreat of the latter termi- 
nated. Here the land is quite fertile, and a little way 
from the village are several water-mills, where the grain 
raised in this part of the valley is ground into flour. 

A little way beyond Tacuba is the hill and temple of 
the Yirgin of Remedies. It was upon this hill, within 
the inclosure of an Indian mound, that the retreating 
party of Cortez made their first bivouac, and built fires 
and dressed their wounds. Hence they gave to the hill 
the name of liemedios, and the church afterward erected 
was dedicated to our Lady of Remedies. Diaz tells us 
that it became very celebrated in his time. The story 
about Cortez finding a broken-nosed image in the knap- 
sack of one of his soldiers is not mentioned either by 
himself or Bernal Diaz, and must therefore be an after- 
thought, to give plausibility to a subsequent imposition. 
From this point Cortez and his party, without their 
women or treasures, trudged along to the foot of the hills 
to Tepeac, or Guadalupe, and thence around the foot of 
Tezcuco to the plains of Otumba. 

The story is, that while Cortez and his men were rest- 
ing here, a soldier took from his knapsack an image, 
with nose broken and an eye wanting, which Cortez 
made the patron saint of the expedition, and held it up 
to their adoration, and that this little incident so encour- 
aged the men that they started off with renewed vigor. 
The whole of this story is probably a very silly modern 
invention. The bulk of the forces of Cortez was most 



214 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

probably composed of that class of reprobates that to 
this day can be found about almost any of the West In- 
dia sea-ports, ready for any enterprise, however hazard- 
ous. They have no religion ; they are not even super- 
stitious, but yield a nominal acquiescence to the forms 
of the Catholic religion. Cortez speaks often of his ef- 
forts to effect the conversion of the Indians, but it is in 
such a business sort of way as to lead to the impression , 
that it was all done to make an impression at home, but 
was really a matter that he did not care much about. 
The famous image, according to the current story, disap- 
peared soon after the Conquest, but was found about 150 
years afterward in a maguey plant, and was as much di- 
lapidated as if it had been exposed to the weather for the 
whole of that century and a half. 

Such, in substance, is the tradition of the Virgin of 
Remedies, who for a century divided with the Virgin of 
Guadalupe the adoration of the people in the most ami- 
cable manner. But when the insurrection of 1810 broke 
out, these two virgins parted company. " Viva the Vir- 
gin of Guadalupe ! " became the war-cry of the unsuccess- 
ful rebels, while "Viva the Lady of Remedies ! " was 
shouted back by the conquering forces of the king. 
The Lady of Guadalupe became suspected of insurrec- 
tionary propensities, while all honors were lavished upon 
the Lady of Remedies by those who wished to make 
protestations of their loyalty. Pearls, money, and jew- 
els were bestowed upon her by the nobility and the Span- 
ish merchants ; and as one insurrectionary leader after 
another was totally defeated, the conquering generals re- 
turned to lay their trophies at the feet of the Lady of Re- 
medies, to whose interposition the victory was ascribed. 
They carried her in triumphant procession through the 
streets of Mexico, singing a laudamus. Then it was 
that the Lady of Remedies was at the zenith of her glo- 



RISE AND FALL OP THE VIRGIN. 215 

iy. Her person was refulgent with a blaze of jewels, 
and her temple was like that of Diana of Ephesus, and all 
about the hill on which it stood bore marks of the great- 
est prosperity. 

Her healing powers were then unrivaled, and the list 
of cures which she is claimed to have effected surpasses 
that of all the patent medicines of our day. She was an 
infallible healer, alike of the diseases of the mind and of 
the body. A glimpse of her broken nose and battered 
face instantaneously cured men of democracy and unbe- 
lief. Heretics stood confounded in her presence, while 
the halt, the lame, and the leprous hung up their crutch- 
es, their bandages, and their filthy rags, as trophies of 
her healing power, among the flags and other trophies of 
her victories over the rebels. Nothing was beyond her 
skill ; from mending a leaky boat to securing a prize in 
the lottery ; from giving eyes to the blind, feet to the 
lame, mending a broken or a paralyzed limb, or a broken 
heart, to putting the baby to sleep. Her votaries es- 
teemed her omnipotent, and carried her in procession in 
times of drought, as the goddess of rain ; and when pes- 
tilence raged in the city, she was borne through the 
infected streets. Such was she in the times of her glory. 

Now all is changed. She is still a goddess, but her 
glory is eclipsed. She, like many a virgin in social life, 
neglected to make her market while all knees were bow- 
ing to her, and now, in the sear and yellow leaf, she is a 
virgin still. Her temple is dilapidated, her garlands are 
faded, her gilding is tarnished, the buildings about her 
court are falling to decay, while the bleak hill which her 
temple crowns looks tenfold more uninviting than if it 
' never had been occupied. When I entered this neglect- 
ed temple of a neglected image, an old, superannuated 
priest was saying mass, and three or four old crones were 
kneeling before her altar. Such are the effects that fol- 



216 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

lowed the revolution of Iguala. Not only was her hated 
rival of Guadalupe elevated from her long obscurity to 
be the national saint, but the animosity against this di- 
lapidated image of Remedies was carried to that extreme 
of cruelty that, when the Spaniards were expelled from 
Mexico, the passports of the " Lady of Remedios" were 
made out, and she was ordered to leave the country. 
Poor thing ! 

The porter's eye glistened at the now unwonted sight 
of a silver dollar, and he soon had me through the most 
secret recesses of the sanctuary. The only things I saw 
worthy of admiration were some pictures, made from 
down or the feathers of the humming-bird, by which 
a richness of color was imparted to the pictures that 
could not be obtained from paints. 

At last we came to the back of the great altar, and 
the curtain of damask silk being drawn up by a little 
string, we saw sitting in a metallic maguey plant a bright 
new Paris doll, dressed in the gaudy odds and ends of 
silk that make such a thing an attractive Christmas 
present for the nursery. Paste supplied the place of 
jewels, and a constellation of false pearls were at the 
back of her shoulders. The man kept his gravity, and 
did reverence to the poor doll, while I burned with in- 
dignation at being imposed upon by a counterfeit "uni- 
versal remedy for all diseases." I had often read in the 
apothecaries' advertisements cautions against counter- 
feits, and rewards for their detection, and I always no- 
ticed, from these printed evidences, that the counterfeits 
were exactly in proportion to the worthlessness of the 
genuine article, and that medicine which was utterly 
valueless itself suffered most from the abundance of 
counterfeits. So it was with the Lady of Kemedios ; 
after she had fallen below the dignity of a humbug, and 
no man was found so poor as to do her reverence, she 



AZTEC AND EOMISH IMAGES. 217 

was spirited away to the Cathedral of the city of Mexico, 
in order to save her three jeweled petticoats from being 
stolen, and a child's doll, covered with paste jewels, now 
personified the great patron saint of the vice-kingdom of 
JSTew Spain. 

I again mounted my horse, angry at being cheated. 
Though the day., was a most lovely one, I rode home in 
fit humor to contrast the system of paganism which 
Cortez introduced with the more poetical system which 
preceded it, and to compare these cast-off child's dolls 
with the allegorical images of the Aztecs. My landlord 
had two boxes of such images, collected when they were 
cleaning out one of the old city canals. By way of par- 
lor ornaments, we had an Aztec god of baked earth. 
He was sitting in a chair ; around his navel was coiled a 
serpent ; his right hand rested upon the head of another 
serpent. This, according to the laws of interpreting al- 
legories, we should understand to signify that the god 
had been renowned for his wisdom ; that with the wisdom 
of the serpent he had executed judgment ; and that his 
meditations were the profundity of wisdom. And yet 
this allegorical worship, defective as it may have been, 
was forcibly superseded by the adoration of a child's 
doll — one that had very possibly been worn out and 
thrown from a nursery, and perhaps picked up by some 
passing monk, was made the goddess of New Spain, and 
clothed with three petticoats, one adorned with pearls, 
one with rubies, and one with diamonds, at an estimated 
cost of $3,000,000. Which was the least objectionable 
superstition ? 

We have been taught to look upon the worship of the 
Aztecs as monstrous ; but the witnesses against them 
were themselves monsters, who were seeking for a pre- 
tense to excuse their own brutality in reducing the In- 
dians to the most debasing slavery, while they appropri- 

K 



218 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

ated to their own use the best looking of the squaws, 
and kept such swarms of supernumerary wives that each 
Spaniard had to brand them with a red-hot iron in or- 
der to know his own family. The fathers of the present 
mixed-breed population of Mexico tell us that the Aztecs 
offered human sacrifices, and feasted upon human flesh. 
They hope, by dwelling upon the enormities of the In- 
dians, to excuse their own still more detestable crimes. 
For three centuries their stories were uncontradicted, and 
they have been received as historical verities. But the 
character of the witnesses warrants us in receiving their 
statements with some incredulity. 



CHAPTER XX. 

The Paseo at Evening. — Ride to Chapultepec. — The old Cypresses of 
Chapultepec. — The Capture of Chapultepec. — Molina del Rey. — 
Tacubaya. — Don Manuel Escandon. — The Tobacco Monopoly. — The 
Palace of Escandon. — The "Desierto." — Hermits. — Monks in the 
Conflict with Satan. — Our Lady of Carmel. 

My residence was near the Paseo JVuevo, and at even- 
ing, while the sun had yet an hour of his daily task to 
finish, I habitually sauntered forth for a walk up and 
down the Paseo, to look at the crowd of coaches, with 
tops thrown back, so that the bareheaded ladies, in full 
dress for dinner, might enjoy the evening air, acquire an 
appetite, and salute their friends by presenting the backs 
of their hands, while they twirled their fingers at them 
with a hearty smile. Gentlemen on richly-caparisoned 
horses dashed along between the rows of advancing and 
returning carriages, stopping now and then by the side 
of a well-known carriage to exchange salutations, or, by 
an exhibition of a well-timed embarrassment, proclaim 
the favored object of their evening's ride. Crowds of 
foot-passengers sauntered along the road-side, looking at 
the rich display made by the aristocracy and nobility of 
the republic. At the entrance of the Paseo, in front of 
the amphitheatre, where on Sundays bulls are tortured 
to death as a popular amusement, is the equestrian 
bronze statue of Carlos IV., the work of Tolsa, who, as 
artist and architect, has won for himself undying renown 
at Mexico. The garden of Tolsa, the College of Mines, 
and the bronze horse, testify to the greatness of his gen- 
ius. Half way down the Paseo is a fountain, around 
which two semicircles of coaches place themselves for a 



220 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

little time, to look on the passing current of carriages 
and horsemen. They soon disappear as the sun shows 
symptoms of descending Ibehind the mountains. On 
Sundays the scene is more animated, and then the Pres- 
ident, with his body-guard of lancers, and attendants in 
scarlet livery, is seen to dash into the Paseo, ride down 
and return through the Alameda, among whose trees and 
fountains the Sabbath crowds most do congregate. 

One morning when all was quiet in this place of dis- 
play, I rode down the street of San Francisco, and turned 
up the Paseo between the prison of the Acordado and 
the bronze horse. There was nothing to disturb the 
monotony that now reigned but cabs or omnibuses on 
their way to or returning from Tacubaya. Passing 
through the open gate of Belin, I rode along at the side 
of the aqueduct to the rock of Chapultepec. 

It calls up singular reflections to look upon a living 
thing that has existed for a thousand years, though it 
be only a tree. Though so many centuries have rolled 
over the venerable cypresses of Chapultepec, yet they 
still are sound and vigorous. The extensive springs of 
pure water that issue from beneath this immense rock 
have kept them flourishing in the midst of a tequisquite 
valley. Long gray threads of Spanish moss hang pend- 
ent from the extremity of their limbs and cover the lower 
leaves. These trees are the only living links that unite 
modern and ancient American civilization ; for they were 
in being while that mysterious race, the Toltecs, were 
still upon the table-lands of Mexico — a race that has left 
behind, not only at Teotihuacan, but in the hot country, 
the imperishable memorials of a civilization like that of 
Egypt ; and from them the Aztecs acquired an imperfect 
knowledge of a few simple arts.* 

* " The Toltecs appeared first in the year 648, the Chicimecs in 1 1 70, 
the Nalmaltecs 1178, the Atolhues and Aztecs in 1196. The Toltecs 



CYPRESSES OF CHAPULTEPEC. 221 

These trees had long been standing, when a body of 
Aztecs, wandering away from their tribe in search of 
game, fixed themselves upon the islands of this marsh, 
first about the rock of Chapultepec, then at Mexicalzin- 
go and Iztapalapan, and finally at Mexico. These trees 
were undisturbed by the Spaniards when Cortez took 
the city, and the Americans respected their great antiqui- 
ty, so that during all the wars and battles that have 
taken place around and above them, they have passed 
unharmed. 

Not only unnumbered generations, but whole races 
have appeared and disappeared, while these trees have 
quietly flourished amid the strife of the elements and the 
contentions of men, taking no heed of the passing events 
of which they were spectators. The Toltecs, of whom 
we must speak more fully hereafter, were the first of 
these races that disappeared from the table-land — the 
victims of wars, and of that plague of the Indian races, 
the matlazhuatl. As the Aztecs rose into importance 
by their success in war and by the multitude of their 
captives, Indian princes made the springs near Chapulte- 
pec their favorite bathing-place, and spread their mats 
under these trees, and in their shadow enjoyed their noon- 
tide slumbers. Then the pale-faces came, and peopled 
the valley with a race of mixed blood, and vice-kings 
occupied the place that had been the sacred retreat of 
the Aztec chiefs. 

introduced the cultivation of maize and cotton ; they huilt cities, made 
roads, and constructed those great pyramids which are yet admired, and 
of which the faces are very accurately laid out. They knew the use 
of hieroglyphical paintings; they could work metals, and cut the hard- 
est stones ; and they had a solar year more perfect than that of the 
Greeks and Romans. The form of their government indicated that 
they were the descendants of a people who had experienced great vi- 
cissitudes in their social state. But where is the source of that culti- 
vation ? Where is the country from which the Toltecs and Mexicans 
issued?" — Humboldt, Essay Politique, vol. i. p. 100. 



222 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

These trees had added many rings to their already en- 
larged circumference before the vice-kings disappeared, 
and an emperor sat in the shade which had been their 
favorite retreat ; and the Aztec eagle floated again upon 
the standard that waved over Chapultepec ; but it was 
only the galvanized corpse of that brave bird, and the 
emperor was only a victim prepared for the sacrifice. 
Since that time much bad gunpowder has been burned 
over the heads of the trees, and the roots have been 
shaken by the discharge of the cannon of the castle at 
every change of rulers, as one ephemeral government suc- 
ceeded another, but these cypresses still remain unharm- 
ed, and may outlive many other dynasties. 

The Americans captured Chapultepec by a coup de 
main. Having made several breaches through the stone 
wall behind the cypresses, they rushed through under 
those trees and up the side of the hill next to them, not 
allowing themselves to be delayed by the turnings of the 
road. The general in command, the late General Bravo, 
was a man of tried courage, and not deficient in military 
sagacity. He sent most urgent requests to Santa Anna 
for reinforcements, urging that General Scott was too 
prudent a soldier to attack the city before carrying the 
castle, and that the garrison was inadequate for its de- 
fense. But Santa Anna was completely paralyzed, as 
Scott designed he should be, by the large force, under 
General Smith, which was threatening the south front 
of the city. When it was too late, Santa Anna discov- 
ered that this was only a feint. 

The King's Mill {Molina del Hey) is an old powder- 
mill, standing on elevated ground in the rear of Chapul- 
tepec. It has nothing about it to give it notoriety ex- 
cept the slaughter of the American troops that here took 
place from a masked battery, manned by a body of vol- 
unteers from the work-shops of the city. The whole af- 



CHAPULTEPEC AND MOLINA DEL KEY. 223 




CHAPULTEPEU. 



fair was a military mistake. Its capture was not neces- 
sary to insure the capture of Chapultepec, for, as soon as 
that fortress, which commanded the mill, should be in our 
power, the mill would be untenable. But repeated suc- 
cesses had made the American officers imprudent, so that 
without first battering down its walls, the division of 
General Worth rushed up, regardless of a flank fire of 
the castle, to carry this old building by assault. After 
the sacrifice of about 700 lives, cannon were brought out 
and the breach made, and then the difficulty was at an 
end. 

A mile or so by the road leading south and west from 
Chapultepec is Tacubaya, where are the suburban resi- 
dences of the Archbishop, the President, and of divers 



224 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

city bankers ; and where the English banker, Mr. Jim- 
merson, has introduced English gardening, and, in a 
Mexican climate, enjoys the pleasure of an English coun- 
try residence. 

The most attractive establishment of Tacubaya is the 
new palace of Don Manuel Escandon, a native-born, self- 
made Mexican millionaire ; a man whose capital has so 
enormously accumulated before he has even reached mid- 
dle life, that he was able to propose to discount a bill for 
$7,000,000 as an ordinary business transaction, though 
ultimately government divided the bid with another 
house. This most remarkable instance of accumulation 
of wealth in modern times is deserving of a passing no- 
tice, which I give on the authority of my landlord, who 
had a personal knowledge of his history. 

Don Manuel enjoyed, in addition to an intimate knowl- 
edge of his own countrymen, the advantages of a foreign 
education, which had extended to an examination of those 
arts and improvements that elevate Europeans above 
the semi-barbarous people of Spanish America. The 
first enterprise that brought him prominently forward 
was the establishment of that vast and most perfect sys- 
tem of stage-coaches, of which I have already spoken, 
on an original capital of $250,000. The wretched con- 
dition of the roads, and the heavy losses that at first al- 
ways attend enterprises of that magnitude, disheartened 
his partners, who were glad to sell out to him $150,000 
of the capital stock at a discount of 50 per cent. After- 
ward the late Zurutusa bought into the scheme, and ul- 
timately became the owner of all the property, having, 
before his death, more than realized the highest anticipa- 
tions of himself or Escandon. A hundred thousand 
dollars, or thereabouts, were the profits to Escandon by 
this establishment of a series of hotels and stages quite 
across the continent. By the successful running of a 



DON MANUEL ESCANDON. 225 

blockade of the coast, lie realized nearly another hundred 
thousand dollars. The numerous enterprises open to men 
of superior sagacity, who fully understand the wants of a 
country in a state of chaos, and are familiar with the im- 
provements of other countries, were readily embraced by 
him, until he found himself possessed of sufficient capi- 
tal to become the principal purchaser of the extensive 
silver mines of Real del Monte, of which the salt-works 
of Tezcuco are but an outside appendage. 

The tobacco monopoly had yielded to the King of 
Spain an average return of nearly a million annually. 
Under the Republic the consumption of the weed had 
greatly increased, but, from the prevalence of disorder in 
every branch of the administration, this important branch 
of the revenue was almost entirely absorbed by the offi- 
cials through whose hands it passed, so that the sum 
realized by government in the most unproductive year 
fell off to $25,000, but finally reached $45,000, the 
amount at which it was farmed out by Escandon and 
Company. Since that time the return to government 
has gone on increasing, until it was advertised to be let 
the last year at the round sum of $1,200,000. How 
much more the partners realized during the years that 
they held the contract is, of course, known only to them- 
selves. 

The new house which Don Manuel has built at Tacu- 
baya is decidedly the finest palace in the republic. The 
position is well chosen, and the sum of $300,000 has 
been laid out upon the house and grounds. It is a com- 
bination of an Italian villa, with the comforts and con- 
veniences of English life. London, Paris, and New 
York have alike contributed to its furniture. I was told 
that $50,000 was invested in pictures alone. When I 
looked at the perfection to which the house, the grounds, 
and the ornamental works had been carried, my only 

K2 



226 MEXICO AXD ITS KELIGION. 

wonder was that $300,000 could have paid for such a 
combination of elegance and good taste. The family, 
which consists only of Don Manuel and his widowed sis- 
ters, had left on account of the cholera then prevailing in 
Tacubaya, but the steward readily opened every door to 
my companion ; and thus, without intruding upon the 
privacy of a family, or even having the honor of their ac- 
quaintance, I obtained access to one of the finest private 
residences that I have ever yet seen, either in this coun- 
try or any other. In this house it was that the Gads- 
den treaty was proposed, at a dinner-party at which Mr. 
Gadsden and Santa Anna were present. 

There was nothing to detain me longer at Tacubaya ; 
but a ride upon the Tacubaya road is not well finished 
without being extended to the Desierto, a place now as 
attractive in its ruins as it was in its prosperity. 

A description of what it once was I copy from old 
Thomas Gage : "But more north [south] westward, 
three leagues from Mexico, is the pleasantest place of all 
that are about Mexico, called the Solidaol, or Desierto, 
'the Solitary Place' or 'Wilderness.' Were all wilder- 
nesses like it, to live in a wilderness would be better 
than to live in a city. This hath been a device of bare- 
footed Carmelites, to make show of their apparent god- 
liness, and who would be thought to live like hermits, 
retired from the world, that they may draw the world 
unto them. They have built them a stately cloister, 
which, being upon a hill and among rocks, makes it to 
be most admired. About the cloister they have fash- 
ioned out many holes and caves, in, under, and among 
the rocks, like hermits' lodgings, with a room to lie in, 
and an oratory to pray in, with pictures, and images, and 
rare devices for self-mortification, as scourges of wire, 
rods of iron, haircloth girdles with sharp wire points, to 
mrd about their bare flesh, and many such like toys, 



THE DESIERTO. 227 

which hang about their oratories, to make people admire 
their mortified and holy lives. 

"All these hermits' holes and caves, which are some 
ten in all, are within the bounds and compass of the 
cloister, and among orchards and gardens, which are full 
of fruits and flowers, which may take two miles in com- 
pass ; and here among the rocks are many springs of 
water, which, with the shade of the plantain and other 
trees, are most cool and pleasant to the hermits. They 
have also the sweet smell of the rose and the jessamine, 
which is a little flower, but the sweetest of all others ; 
and there is not any flower to be found that is rare and 
exquisite in that country which is not in that wilderness, 
to delight the senses of those mortified hermits. 

" They are weekly changed from the cloister, and 
when their week is ended others are sent, and they re- 
turn into their cloisters ; they carry with them their 
bottles of wine, sweetmeats, and other provisions. As 
for fruits, the trees do drop them into their mouths. It 
is wonderful to see the strange devices of fountains of 
water which are about the gardens ; but much more 
strange and wonderful to see the resort thither of coach- 
es, and gallants, and ladies, and citizens from Mexico, 
to walk and make merry in those desert pleasures, and 
to see those hypocrites, whom they look upon as living 
saints, and so think nothing too good for them to cherish 
them in their desert conflicts with Satan. 

" None goes to them but carries some sweetmeats or 
some other dainty dish to nourish and feed them withal, 
whose prayers they likewise earnestly solicit, leaving 
them great alms of money for their masses ; and, above 
all, offering to a picture in their church, called our Lady 
of Carmel, treasures of diamonds, pearls, golden chains, 
and crowns, and gowns of cloth of gold and silver. Be- 
fore this picture did hang, in my time, twenty lamps of 



228 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

silver, the poorest of them being worth a hundred pounds. 
Truly Satan hath given them what he offered unto Christ 
in the desert. 

"All the dainties and all the riches of America hath 
he given unto them in that desert, because they daily 
fall down and worship him. In the way to this place 
is another town, called Tacubaya, where is a rich cloister 
of Franciscans, and also many gardens and orchards ; 
but it is, above all, much resorted to for the music in 
that church, wherein the friars have made the Indians so 
skillful that they dare compare with the Cathedral Church 
of Mexico." 



CHAPTER XXL 

Walk to Guadalupe. — Our Embassador kneeling to the Host.— An Em- 
bassador with, and one without Lace. — Eirst sight of Santa Anna. — 
Indian Dance in Church. — Juan Diego not Saint Thomas. — The Mir- 
acle proved at Rome. — The Story of Juan Diego. — The holy Well of 
Guadalupe. — The Temple of the Virgin. — Public Worship interdict- 
ed by the Archbishop. — Refuses to revoke his Interdict. — He fled to 
Guadalupe and took Sanctuary. — Refused to leave the Altar. — The 
Arrest at the Altar. 

" Placuit jpinturas in ecclesia esse non debere, ne quod 
colitur vel adoratur, in parietibus pingatur — Pictures 
ought not to be in the churches, nor should any that 
are reverenced or adored be painted upon the walls." 
So say the canons of the Council of Toledo. 

I was one of a vast crowd that, on a Sunday of De- 
cember, 1853, were hurrying out of the city by the old 
gate and causeway of Tepeac to the suburban village of 
Guadalupe Hidalgo, once Tepeac, but now consecrated 
to the Virgin Mary, who, tradition says, appeared there 
in a bodily form to an Indian peon. Juan Diego was 
the name of the Indian, and 1531 is the date assigned 
to the incident. I shall hereafter take occasion to relate 
the story as given by the veracious Juan, and duly at- 
tested by authority which ought to be competent to set- 
tle the question, if any thing can do so. I hope that my 
readers will do their best to believe it. If they honest- 
ly endeavor to do so, and do not succeed, I trust they 
will not suffer on account of their lack of faith. 

The occasion that was drawing the multitude together 
was the consecration of the bishop-elect of Michoican, 
which was to be celebrated with great pomp at this most 



230 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

sacred shrine of the patron goddess of the Republic. The 
State and the Church were duly represented upon the 
platform by the President, the nuncio, and the archbish- 
op. Beneath the platform, and within the silver railing, 
were the official representatives of foreign nations, who 
were easily distinguished by a strip of gold or silver 
lace upon the collars and lapels of their coats. To this 
uniformity of dress there was a single exception in the 
person of the new American embassador, Mr. Gadsden, 
whose plain black dress and clerical appearance would 
have conveyed the impression that he was a Methodist 
preacher, had he not been engaged, with all the awkward- 
ness of a novice, upon his knees, in crossing himself. 

This was the first occasion on which I had ever seen 
Santa Anna. If looks have any weight determining a 
man's character, then truly he was entitled to his position, 
for he was, by all odds, the most imposing in appearance 
of any person in that assemblage, or any other I have 
yet seen in Mexico. His part in the performance was 
that of godfather to the bishop. Surrounded by kneel- 
ing aids-de-camp, he alone stood up, in the rich uniform 
of a general of division, seeming the perfection of mili- 
tary elegance and dignity. Each badge of prelatical 
rank, before it was put upon the new bishop, was hand- 
ed to Santa Anna, who kissed it, and then returned it. 
He stood without apparent fatigue during the whole of 
that long ceremony. I have often seen Santa Anna 
since that time, but never have I seen him appear to 
such advantage as upon this occasion. 

On the next Sabbath I attended the Indian celebra- 
tion of the appearance of the most blessed Virgin. Dur- 
ing the Christmas holidays in the country of the Pintos, 
I had seen Indians dressed up in whimsical attire, enact- 
ing plays, and singing and dancing ; but this was the 
first time that I had ever seen, in a house dedicated to 



THE BIBLE IN MEXICO* 231 

tlie worship of God, or, rather, in a temple consecrated 
to the adoration of the Virgin, fantastic dances perform- 
ed by Indians under the supervision of priests and "bish- 
ops. When I found out what the entertainment was, I 
was heartily vexed that I should be at such a place on 
the Sabbath day. The dancing and singing was bad 
enough, but the climax was reached when the priest came 
down from the altar, with an array of attendants having 
immense candles, to the side door, where the procession 
stopped to witness the discharge, at mid-day, of a large 
amount of fire-works in honor of the most blessed Virgin 
Mary. 

I hurried home from this profanation of the Lord's 
day, and sat down and contemplated the old Aztec 
god, who had been deified for his wisdom, and could not 
but regret the change that had been imposed upon these 
imbecile Indians. The next Sabbath after this was the 
national anniversary of the miraculous apparition ; but, 
having seen enough of this sort of thing, I concluded 
that my Sabbaths would be better spent in staying at 
home and reading a Spanish Testament, which had been 
brought into the country in violation of the law. When 
I was first at the city of Mexico, Governor Letcher re- 
lated to me the stratagem by which he contrived to 
smuggle an American Bible agent out of the country 
when the police were after him, on an accusation of sell- 
ing prohibited books ! for in such a country as this, the 
Word of God is a prohibited book. 

Juan Diego, upon whose veracity rests the story of 
the miraculous appearance of the Virgin, was an Indian 
peon ; and though, like the rest of his race, he probably 
was an habitual liar, yet when he bears testimony to a 
miracle he is presumed to speak the truth. He lived in 
a mud hut somewhere about the barren hill now conse- 
crated to the Virgin of Guadalupe. The attempt to make 



232 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

out that it was Saint Thomas, or the Wandering Jew, 
who here had an interview with the Virgin Mary, and 
that the old rag on which the picture is painted is really 
a part of the cloak of Saint Thomas, is, by a very ver- 
bose proclamation of the Archbishop of Mexico, dated 
25th March, 1795, pronounced a damnable heresy. I 
have in my possession a copy of this precious document, 
bearing the signature of Don Alonzo Nunez de Haro y 
Peralto. 

As I learn from the said proclamation that "the ad- 
oration of this holy image" [picture] exists not only in 
Mexico, but in South America and Spain, and that it 
has propagated itself in Italy, Flanders, Germany, Aus- 
tria, Bohemia, Poland, Ireland, and Transylvania, I shall 
be excused for giving the substance of this miraculous 
apparition, since it is now an article of belief of all good 
Catholics, having been proved before the Congregation of 
Rites at Home to have been a miraculous appearance of 
the Mother of God upon earth, in the year and at the 
place aforesaid. And the proclamation farther informs 
us that his holiness, Benedict XIV., was so fully per- 
suaded of the truth of the tradition, that he made " cor- 
dial devotion to our Lady of Guadalupe, and conceded the 
proper mass and ritual of devotion. He also made men- 
tion of it in the lesson of the second nocturnal . . . . , 
declaring from the high throne of the Vatican that Mary, 
most holy, non fecit taliter omni nationV 

Juan Diego had a sick father, and, like a good and pi- 
ous son, he started for the medicine-man. He was 
stopped by the Virgin at the spot where the round house 
on the extreme right of the picture is situated. She re- 
proached him with the slowness of the Indians in em- 
bracing the new religion, and at the same time she an- 
nounced to him the important fact that she was to be 
the patron of the Indians, and also charged him to go 



STOJRY OF JUAN DIEGO. 233 

and report the same to Zumarraga, who then enjoyed 
the lucrative office of Bishop of Mexico. Juan obeyed 
the heavenly messenger, but found himself turned out of 
doors as a lying Indian. The second time he went for 
the medicine-man he took another path, but was again 
stopped on the way at the spot where the second round 
house now stands. She now required him to go a sec- 
ond time to the bishop, and, in order to convince him of 
the truth of the story, she directed the Indian to climb 
to the top of the rock, where he would find a bunch of 
roses growing out of the smooth porphyry. The Indian 
did as he was commanded, and finding the roses in the 
place named, he gathered them in his tilma, and carried 
them to the bishop. The spot is marked by a small 
chapel. On opening his tilma before the bishop and a 
company of gentlemen assembled for that purpose, it was 
found that the roses had imprinted themselves around a 
very coarse picture of the Virgin. This is the story of 
the miraculous appearance of our Lady of Guadalupe. 

The bishop was hard to convince at first, but when he 
considered that the Indian could not himself paint, and 
had no money with which to pay an artist, and, above 
all, as there was a fair chance of making money by the 
transaction, he finally yielded to conviction. His ex- 
ample was soon followed by the whole nation ; and then 
the several buildings, one after another, began to make 
their appearance. There was some difficulty at first in 
identifying the place of the first appearance of the Vir- 
gin, but this difficulty was removed by the Virgin her- 
self, for she again appeared and stamped her foot upon 
the spot, whereupon there gushed forth a spring of min- 
eral water.* This has proved an infallible cure for all 
diseases of body and mind, and to it the Indians resort 

* This water is impregnated with carbonic acid, sulphate of lime, 
and soda. 



234 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGIOM. 

to drink, and wash, and drink again, until it would seem 
that they must soon exhaust the fountain, so great is the 
multitude that resort to this spring of the Virgin. 

The Collegiate Church — for there can not be two Ca- 
thedrals in one diocese — is the principal building in the 
picture. It is not large, but it surpasses any thing I 
have yet seen for its immense accumulation of treasure, 
excepting always the Cathedral. A railing formed of 
plates of pure silver incloses both the choir and the altar 
of the Virgin. These are joined together by a passage- 
way, which is inclosed by a portion of the same precious 
railing. The golden candlesticks, the golden shields, 
and other ornaments of gold, dazzle the eyes of the be- 
holder, while the three rows of jewels, one of pearls, one 
of emeralds, and one of diamonds, encircling "the holy 
image," produce an impression not easily erased. The 
contrast that is presented between these hoards of wealth 
and the extreme poverty of the multitude that here con- 
gregate is most striking. 

The religion of Mexico is a religion of priestly mir- 
acles, and when the ordinary rules of evidence are applied 
to them, they and the religion that rests upon them fall 
together ; hence the necessity of exacting at the start a 
blind submission to authority, and an abnegation of the 
reasoning faculties the moment the subject of religion is 
approached. We have applied the ordinary rules of ev- 
idence to the romance of the Conquest, and we find that 
it will not stand the test of an examination. But if we 
doubt the history of the Conquest, we must doubt the 
history of all the miracles of the Church, for all of them 
rest on the like untenable grounds. I did not wonder 
at finding the country abounding in unbelief. Now that 
the fires of the Inquisition have ceased to burn, the 
priesthood are made the butt and laughing-stock of those 
who are educated. Still, the national mind does not run 



AN INTERDICT. 237 

toward the pure Gospel, which is here unknown and pro- 
hibited, but to infidelity and socialism. A sincere Prot- 
estant can have no sympathy with either side. 

The following is Thomas Gage's account of an affair 
that took place in this temple in his time : 

" Don Alonzo de Zerna, the archbishop, who had al- 
ways opposed Don Pedro Mexia and the Virey, to please 
the people, granted to them to excommunicate Don Pe- 
dro, and so sent out bills of excommunication, to be fixed 
upon all the church doors, against Don Pedro, who, not 
regarding the excommunication, and keeping close at 
home, and still selling his wheat at a higher price than 
before, the archbishop raised his censure higher against 
him, by adding to it a bill of cessatio a divinis, that is, 
a cessation of all divine service. This censure is so 
great with them that it is never used except for some 
great man's sake, who is contumacious and stubborn in 
his ways, contemning the power of the Church. Then 
are all the church doors shut up, let the city be never 
so great ; no masses are said ; no prayers are used ; no 
preaching permitted ; no meetings allowed for any pub- 
lic devotion ; no calling upon God. The Church mourns, 
as it were, and makes no show of spiritual joy and com- 
fort, nor of any communion of prayers one with another, 
so long as the party remains stubborn and rebellious in 
his sin and scandal, and in not yielding to the Church's 
censure. 

"And whereas, by this cessation a divinis, many 
churches, especially cloisters, suffer in the means of their 
livelihood, who live upon what is daily given for the 
masses they say, and in a cloister where thirty or forty 
priests say mass, so many pieces of eight [dollars] do 
daily come in, therefore this censure is inflicted upon the 
whole Church, that the party offending or scandalizing, 
for whose sake this curse is laid upon all, is bound to 



238 MEXICO AND ITS KEL1GION. 

satisfy all priests and cloisters, which, in the way afore- 
said, suffer, and to allow them so much out of his means 
as they might have daily got by selling away their 
masses for so many dollars for their daily livelihood. 
To this would the archbishop have brought Don Pedro, 
to have emptied out his purse, nearly a thousand dol- 
lars daily, toward the maintenance of about a thousand 
priests, so many there may be in Mexico, who from the 
altar sell away their bread god [sacrament*] to satisfy 
with bread and food their hungry stomachs. And sec- 
ondly, by the people suffering in their spiritual comfort, 
and in their communion of prayers and worship, thought 
to make Don Pedro odious to the people. Don Pedro, 
perceiving the spiteful intent of the archbishop, and hear- 
ing the outcries of the people against him, and their cries 
for the use of their churches, secretly retired to the pal- 
ace of the Yirey, begging his favor and protection, for 
whose sake he suffered. 

" The viceroy immediately sent out his orders com- 
manding the bills of excommunication and cessatio a di- 
vinis to be pulled down from the church doors ; and to 
all the superiors of the cloisters to set open their church- 
es, and to celebrate their services and masses as former- 
ly they had done. But they disobeyed the vice-king 
through blind obedience to their archbishop. The vice- 
roy commanded the arch-prelate to revoke his censures ; 
but his answer was, that what he had done had been 
justly done against a public offender and great oppressor 
of the poor, whose cries had moved him to commiserate 
their suffering condition, and that the offender's contempt 
of his first excommunication had deserved the rigor of 

* It is difficult to convey to Protestant readers the idea which the 
Spaniards attach to the sacramental bread or wafer after the priest has 
pronounced the words of consecration. . They call it both God and Je- 
sus Christ, and claim for it divine worship. 



ARREST OF AN ARCHBISHOP. 239 

the second censure, neither of which he would nor could 
revoke until Don Pedro Mexia had submitted himself to 
the Church and to a public absolution, and had satisfied 
the priests and the cloisters who suffered for him, and 
had disclaimed that unlawful and unconscionable monop- 
oly* wherewith he wronged the whole commonwealth, 
and especially the poorer sort therein. 

" The viceroy, not brooking this saucy answer from a 
priest, commanded him presently to be apprehended, and 
to be taken under guard to San Juan de Ulua, and then 
to be shipped to Spain. The archbishop, having notice 
of this resolution of the viceroy, retired to Guadalupe, 
with many of his priests and prebends, leaving a bill of 
excommunication against the viceroy himself upon the 
church doors, intending privately to fly to Spain, there to 
give an account of his carriage and behavior. But he 
could not escape the care and vigilance of the viceroy, 
who, with his sergeant and officers, pursued him to 
Guadalupe, which the archbishop understanding, he be- 
took himself to the sanctuary of the church, and there 
caused the candles to be lighted upon the altar, and the 
sacrament of his bread god to be taken out of the taber- 
nacle, and attiring himself with his pontifical vestments, 
with his mitre on his head, his crosier in one hand, in 
the other he took his god of bread, and thus, with his 
train of priests about him at the altar, he waited for the 
coming of the sergeant and officers, whom he thought, 
with his god in his hand, and with a Here I am, to as- 
tonish and amaze, and to make them, as did Christ the 
Jews in the garden, to fall backward, and disable them 
from laying hands on him. 

" The officers, coming into the church, went toward the 
altar where the bishop stood, and, kneeling down first 
to worship their god, made short prayers ; which being 
ended, they propounded unto the bishop, with courteous 



240 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

and fair words, the cause of their coming to that place, 
requiring him to lay down the sacrament [the consecrated 
wafer], and to come out of the church, and to hear the 
notification of what orders they brought unto him in the 
king's name. To whom the archbishop replied, that 
whereas their master the viceroy was excommunicated, 
he looked upon him as one out of the pale of the Church, 
and one without any power or authority to command him 
in the house of God, and so required them, as they re- 
garded the good of their souls, to depart peaceably, and 
not to infringe the privileges and immunities of the 
Church by exercising in it any legal act of secular pow- 
er and command ; and that he would not go out of the 
church unless they durst take him and the sacrament 
together. With this the head officer, named Tiroll, stood 
up and notified unto him an order, in the king's name, 
to apprehend his person in what place soever he should 
find him, and to guard him to the port of San Juan de 
Ulua, and there to deliver him to whom by farther order 
he should be directed thereto, to be shipped to Spain as 
a traitor to the king's crown, a troubler of the common 
peace, and an author and mover of sedition in the com- 
monwealth. 

" The archbishop, smiling to Tiroll, answered him, 
' Thy master useth too high terms and words, which do 
better agree unto himself, for I know no mutiny or sedi- 
tion like to trouble the commonwealth, unless it be by his 
and Don Pedro Mexia his oppressing of the poor. And 
as for thy guarding me to San Juan, de Ulua, I conjure 
thee by Jesus Christ, whom thou knowest I hold in my 
hands, not to use here any violence in God's house, from 
whose altar I am resolved not to depart ; take heed God 
punish you not, as he did Jeroboam for stretching forth 
his hand at the altar against the prophet ; let his with- 
ered hand remind thee of thy duty.' But Tiroll suffer- 



BANISHMENT OF THE AECHBISHOP. 241 

ed him not to squander away the time and ravel it out 
with farther preaching, but called to the altar a priest, 
whom he had brought for the purpose, and commanded 
him, in the king's name, to take the sacrament [wafer] 
out of the archbishop's hand ; which the priest doing, the 
archbishop, unvesting himself of his pontificals, yield- 
ed himself unto Tiroll ; and, taking his leave of all his 
prebends, requiring them to be witnesses of what had 
been done, he went prisoner to San Juan de Ulua, where 
he was delivered to the custody of the governor of the 
castle, and, not many days after, was sent in a ship pre- 
pared for that purpose to Spain, to the king in council, 
with a full charge of all his carriages and misdemeanors." 



CHAPTER XXII. 

The old Indian City of Mexico. — The Mosques. — Probable Extent of 
Civilization. — Aztecs acquired Arts of the Toltecs. — Toltec Civiliza- 
tion, ancient and original. — The Pyramid of Papantla. — The Plun- 
der of Civilization. — Mexico as described by Cortez. — Montezuma's 
Court. — The eight Months that Cortez held Montezuma. — What hap- 
pened for the next ten Months. — The Siege of Mexico by Cortez. — 
Aztecs conquered by Famine and Thirst. — Heroes on Paper and 
Victories without Bloodshed. — Cortez and Morgan. 

As we have carefully surveyed the suburbs, and all 
the valley of Mexico, it is time to take a survey of the 
city itself, and examine its condition at different periods 
of its history. 

The Aztec city of Mexico perished with its conquest 
by the Spaniards. Day by day, as the siege went on, 
the Indians that followed the soldiers pulled the houses 
down, when the latter had passed, and threw the rub- 
bish into the canals ; so that, on the day on which the 
conquest was effected, the city ceased to exist. Many 
times has that old city been restored, in the imagination 
of enthusiasts, with its forty pyramids (feocallis) and un- 
numbered palaces, adorned with all the luxury and mag- 
nificence of the most refined civilization, united with bar- 
baric grandeur and inhumanity in so strange a combina- 
tion as to distract our feelings between hate and admi- 
ration. 

It was easy to build an Indian city that would pre- 
sent a most imposing appearance, for the climate was 
well fitted for drying mud thoroughly. Besides, there 
was an inexhaustible supply of pumice-stone (tepetate), 
and an exceedingly soft, gray quarry stone, for caps and 



THE MEXICO OF THE AZTECS. 243 

lintels, with an excellent quality of cement, and material 
for "fresco painting" of the walls, abundant and cheap. 
All these articles are combined in the building of the 
modern city, and give it its present appearance of ele- 
gance and great durability. But in the old city, one- 
story palaces of dried mud, plastered and frescoed, with 
large interior courts like that I have described at Tez- 
cuco, must have been among the most imposing struc- 
tures. If tejpetate was employed in the construction of 
the royal palaces, it would not have added materially to 
the weight resting upon the earthy foundations ; for 
when the water in the ditches occupied half the street,* 
the foundations must have been so much softer than at 
present, that structures of the lightest material only could 
be borne. 

In his anxiety to keep up a resemblance between his 
conquests and that of Granada, Cortez calls the teocallis, 
or Indian mounds which he found, mosques, and speaks 
of "forty towers, the largest of which has fifty steps 
leading to its main body, and is higher than the tower 
of the principal church in Seville."! Bernal Diaz says 
there were "115 steps to the summit. "J I must reduce 
the size of this great pyramid to the size of the isolated 
rock that the Cathedral is said to occupy. The difficul- 
ty of getting rid of the earth that composed these forty 
artificial mountains does not seem to have troubled his- 
torians so much as it would a contractor. I have often 
thought that those hillocks of earth on the north side of 
the town were once small artificial mounds on which the 
Indians offered their worship, for in the canal near by 
was found that collection of clay divinities of which I 
have already spoken. 

The difficulty in the way of forming a correct idea of 
that old city, is owing to the defective character of our 

* Cortez, Letters, p. 111. f Ibid. % Diaz, p. 247. 



244 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

witnesses. The one confesses to the habitual practice 
of falsehood for the purpose of deceiving the Indians ; 
the other acknowledges practices that render the char- 
acter of both infamous, and would make their testimony 
of no weight in a court of justice unless corroborated. 
We must therefore feel our way as best we can. 

With the rude implements of the Indians, houses of 
the driest blocks of mud, though covered with cement 
and painted with colored wash, could easily have been 
thrown down ; but gunpowder or iron bars would have 
been necessary to overturn a wall composed either of 
stone or tepetate and cement. Villages built of dried 
mud are often imposing in their appearance, and are yet 
most perishable ; for the first overflow of waters, that 
shall cover but a few inches of the walls of the houses, 
will in a few hours reduce a whole village to a mass of 
ruins. Again, the dry wall that has fallen becomes sat- 
urated, and dissolves itself into soft mud. My hypothe- 
sis is, therefore, not without its difficulty, for at every in- 
undation of the city in the times of the Aztecs we have to 
suppose it totally destroyed ; an evil that could not be 
remedied until the water had entirely subsided, and 
new mud had been formed into blocks and dried in 
the sun, and a new village or city built every twenty- 
five years. 

To sum up my theory of Aztec civilization: they had 
earthen gods, earthen cooking utensils, and earthen aque- 
ducts ; their temples were small buildings, upon moder- 
ately-sized Indian burial mounds, and their palaces and 
sacred inclosures were of dried mud, and of a single sto- 
ry in height. 

With this solution, the difficulty that occurred to Hum- 
boldt is in part removed, viz., that the allotted time — 
one hundred and seventy years — was too short a period 
in which to transform a tribe of North American Indians 



THE TOLTECS. 245 

into a settled community. The remainder of the diffi- 
culty is explained by an event taking place in our own 
days. It is hardly thirty years since the Apache Indians 
began the systematic plunder of the northern states of 
Mexico, and now even these nomades begin to show the 
first glimmerings of civilization. Their captives teach 
them the use of much of the plunder they have brought 
to their own villages. Though their treatment of female 
captives is inhuman, yet it is not an uncommon thing 
for a captive to become a wife, and to introduce into her 
wigwam, and to inculcate upon the minds of her chil- 
dren, a few of the primary ideas of civilization. It is the 
commonly received notion that the Toltecs abandoned 
the table-land about the time of the arrival of the Aztecs, 
but continued to flourish in the region of the Gulf coast 
and in other parts of the hot country ; that the vast ru- 
ins which abound in those regions were inhabited cities 
till within a few generations of the coming of the Span- 
iards ; and that in Yucatan, the part most distant from 
Mexico, that civilization continued quite down to that 
period ; that for a great portion of the one hundred and 
seventy years of their national existence, the Aztecs 
kept up predatory excursions into the Toltec region, and 
out of its dense population derived an inexhaustible sup- 
ply of slaves and the plunder of civilization, included in 
which may have been the best wrought of the stone 
idols that are still preserved. So that the Aztec civili- 
zation resolves itself into the very ancient civilization of 
the Toltecs. 

We have removed to a greater antiquity, but have not 
got rid of the question of the origin of Mexican civiliza- 
tion. The year 600, named by Humboldt, may be con- 
sidered as the time of their appearance on the table-land ; 
but many of the ruins in the hot country might claim a 
thousand years earlier antiquity. These massive re- 



246 



MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 



mains must have stood, abandoned as they now are, in 
the midst of the forest, for a long time before the Con- 
quest, as their very existence was unknown to the Span- 
iards until near the close of the last century. The close 
resemblance between the apparently most ancient of 
these works, and those of the Egyptians and other East- 
ern civilizations, does not involve the idea of a common 
origin or of intercourse, but only leads to the suggestion 
that the human race, in its progress, naturally follows 
the same path, whether upon the eastern or western con- 
tinent, and that it is separated by a cycle of thousands 
of years from the civilization of our day. As a speci- 
men of the works of the Toltecs, I insert a sketch of 
the pyramid of Papantla. 




PYRAMID OF PAPANTLA. 



PYKAMID OF PAPANTLA. 247 

"The pyramid of Papantla," says Humboldt,* "is 
not constructed like tlie pyramids of Cholula and Mex- 
ico. The only materials employed are immense stones. 
Mortar is distinguished in the seams. The edifice, how- 
ever, is not so remarkable for its size as for its sym- 
metry, the polish of the stones, and the great regularity 
of their cut. The base of the pyramid is an exact 
square, each side being eighty-two feet in length. The 
perpendicular height appears not to be more than from 
fifty-two to sixty-five feet. This monument, like all the 
Mexican teocallis, is composed of several stages. Six 
are still distinguishable, and a seventh appears to be con- 
cealed by the vegetation with which the sides of the pyra- 
mid are covered. A great stairway of fifty-seven steps 
conducts to the truncated top of the teocalli, where the 
human victims were sacrificed. On each side of the 
great stairs is a flight of small stairs. The facing of the 
stories is adorned with hieroglyphics, in which serpents 
and crocodiles, carved in relievo, are discernible. Each 
story contains a great number of square niches, symmet- 
rically distributed. In the first story we reckon twen- 
ty-four on each side, in the second twenty, and in the 
third sixteen. The number of these niches in the body 
of the pyramid is three hundred and sixty-six, and there 
are twelve in the stairs toward the east. The Abbe 
Marquez supposes that this number of three hundred and 
seventy-eight niches has some allusion to a calendar of 
the Mexicans, and he even believes that in each of them 
one of the twenty figures was repeated, which, in the hi- 
eroglyphical language of the Toltecs, served as a sym- 
bol for marking the days of the common year, and the 
intercalated days at the end of the cycles. The year be- 
ing composed of eighteen months of twenty days, there 
would then be three hundred and sixty days, to which, 

* Essai Politique, vol. ii. p. 172. 



248 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

agreeable to the Egyptian practice, five complementary 

days were added This pyramid was visited by 

M. Dupe, a captain in the service of the King of Spain. 
He possesses the bust, in basalt, of a Mexican, which I 
employed M. Massard to engrave, and which bears great 
resemblance to the calautica of the heads of Isis." 

I prefer in this way to copy from an author of un- 
questionable authority an important historical fact, rather 
than to search for less accessible sources of evidence on 
which I rest the theory, that what of this kind we have 
seen at the city of Mexico are but fragments from the 
wreck that befell the American civilization of antiquity, 
which had succumbed before the inroads of northern sav- 
ages. This is sufficient inquiry into antiquities till we 
come to the museum. 

It is but justice to add the substance of Cortez's ac- 
count of this ancient city, which is embodied in the fol- 
lowing paragraphs : 

" This noble city contains many fine and magnificent 
houses, which may be accounted for from the fact that 
all the nobility of the country, who are the vassals of 
Montezuma, have houses in the city, in which they re- 
side a certain part of the year ; and, besides, there are 
numerous wealthy citizens who also possess fine houses. 
All these persons, in addition to the large and spacious 
apartments for ordinary purposes, have others, both up- 
per and lower, that contain conservatories of flowers. 
Along one of the causeways [the Chapultepec] that lead 
into the city are laid two [water] pipes, constructed of 
masonry, each of which is two paces in width, and about 

five feet in height The inhabitants of this city 

pay greater regard to the style of their mode of living, 
and are more attentive to elegance of dress and polite- 
ness of manners than those of other provinces and cities, 
since, as the cacique Montezuma has his residence in the 



MEXICO ACCORDING TO COETEZ. 249 

capital, and all the nobility, his vassals, are in the con- 
stant habit of meeting there, a general courtesy of de- 
meanor necessarily prevails For, as I have al- 
ready stated, what can be more wonderful than that a 
barbarous monarch, as he is, should have every object 
found in his dominions imitated in gold, silver, precious 
stones, and feathers, the gold and silver being wrought 
so naturally as not to be surpassed by any smith in the 
world, the stone-work executed with such perfection that 
it is difficult to conceive what instruments could have 
been used, and the feather-work superior to the finest 
production in wax and embroidery ? . . . . He possess- 
ed out of the city as well as within numerous villas, each 
of which had its peculiar sources of amusement, and all 
were constructed in the best possible manner for the use 
of a great prince or lord. Within the city, his palaces 
were so wonderful that it is hardly possible to describe 
their beauty and extent. I can only say that in Spain 
there is nothing equal to them. There was one palace 
somewhat inferior to the rest, attached to which was a 
beautiful garden, with balconies extending over it, sup- 
ported by marble columns, and having a floor formed of 
jasper elegantly inlaid. There were apartments in this 
palace sufficient to lodge two princes of the highest rank 

with their retinues The emperor has another 

beautiful palace, with a large court-yard paved with hand- 
some flags in the style of a chess-board. 

"Every day, as soon as it was light, six hundred no- 
bles and men of rank were in attendance at the palace, 
who either sat or walked about the halls and galleries, 
and passed their time in conversation, but without enter- 
ing the apartments where his person was Daily 

his larder and wine-cellar* were open to all who wished 

* This is a little too strong a statement, considering that there never 
was and never could be a cellar at Mexico. 

L2 



250 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

to eat and drink. The meals were served by three hund- 
red youths, who brought on an infinite variety of dishes ; 
indeed, whenever he dined or supped, the table was load- 
ed with every kind of flesh, fish, and vegetables that the 
country produced. The meals were served in a large 
hall, in which Montezuma was accustomed to eat, and 
the dishes quite filled the room, which was covered with 
mats, and kept very clean. He sat on a small cushion 
curiously wrought of leather.* He is also dressed four 
times every day in four different suits entirely new, which 
he never wears a second time. None of the caciques 
who enter his palace have their feet covered, and when 
those for whom he sends enter his presence, they incline 
their heads and look down, bending their bodies ; and 
when they address him, they do not look him in the 
face ; this arises from excessive modesty and reverence, f 
.... No sultan or other infidel lord, of whom any 
knowledge now exists, ever had so much ceremonial in 
his court." 

It was in the spring of 1519 that Cortez and his 
company had landed at Vera Cruz. From that point 
they had marched toward Mexico without opposition, 
except the skirmishes with the Tlascalans, and without 
opposition they had entered the city of Mexico on the 
5th of November, 1519. Here they had been received 
with every mark of hospitality and treated with every 
kindness. But this did not prevent their treacherously 
seizing the person of their host, and making him a pris- 
oner in their quarters. In his name they had governed 
his tribe, and ransacked his dominions in search of the 
treasures collected by the gold-washers, and had even 

* The naked negro alcalde mentioned in Chapter XII. was also 
seated on a leather cushion. 

f This is not all fancy. No people in the world show more profound 
reverence to the aged or deference to their chiefs than the North Amer- 
ican Indians. 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE SPANIARDS. 251 

interfered in the religious worship of a superstitious peo- 
ple, and murdered, in cold blood, a party of their chiefs 
celebrating an Indian feast. Still there had been no 
war, until Ordaz was sent, with his four hundred men, 
to recapture the concubines of Cortez, who had been res- 
cued, as already mentioned. This was in July of the 
following year, eight months after their first entry into 
Mexico, and on the 10th of July, 1520, the licentious 
rule of the Spaniards at Mexico was terminated by the 
events of the triste noche. 

The mere handful that had at first entered the city 
had been increased by the army of JNTarvaez, so that 
when the news reached Cortez that Alvarado and the 
eighty odd men that had been left with him in the city 
were threatened with difficulty, he marched a well-ap- 
pointed army of fourteen hundred men, besides two hun- 
dred Tlascalans, to his relief. Their retreat to Tlascala 
has already been described, the character of the brigan- 
tines has been discussed, as well as the absurd story of 
his having dug a slip or launching canal at Tezcuco, 
twelve feet broad and twelve feet deep. We have seen 
that the towns and villages said to have been built in 
the lake, and the still greater number of large towns on 
the main land, could only have been petty Indian ham- 
lets, and that the central portions of the valley of Mex- 
ico would not have been habitable if the lakes of Mex- 
ico had been any thing more than evaporation ponds. 
And, lest I should venture too far, I will conclude this 
remark by adverting to the testimony of Diaz, which 
concedes that when his book was written the face of the 
country was substantially as it now is, and as I have 
already described it to be. But he endeavors to save 
the story of the Conquest by the shallow pretense that, 
during the few years that intervened between that event 



252 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

and the date of his history, the whole face of the coun- 
try had completely changed.* 

The great mystery is why so large a body of Span- 
iards, if they really amounted to the number claimed by 
Cortez, should have retreated from the city at all, as 
they do not complain of being short of provisions. They 
had the great teocalli for a fortress, on which they might 
have planted their cannon, and leveled the city in a few 
days, if not in a few hours, and the great Plaza in which 
to manoeuvre their cavalry and protect the Indians while 
leveling the rubbish of the broken walls. But a panic 
having seized them, and having escaped from the city 
by a badly-managed night retreat, ten months elapsed 
before the Spaniards, on the 13th of May, 1521, laid 
siege to the city. And with varying success the siege 
was continued just three months, until Guatemozin was 
taken prisoner, on the 13th of August, 1521, so that the 
siege was carried on in the midst of the rainy season, 
when the flats must have been covered with water, and 
the ditches well filled. No difficulty was experienced in 
bringing up his flat-boats to the sides of the muddy 
causeways, or in cutting off the supplies of provisions by. 
water, or in breaking down the earthen aqueduct of 
Chapultepec, so that the Indians were finally subdued 
by the combined forces of hunger and thirst. When 
the Aztecs were so enfeebled by want that they could 
no longer offer resistance, the Spaniards rushed into the 

* " Iztapalapan was at that time a town of considerable magnitude, 
built half in the water and half on dry land. The spot where it stood 
is at present all dry land ; and where vessels once sailed up and down, 
seeds are sown and harvests gathered. In fact, the whole face of the 
country is so completely changed, that he who had not seen these parts 
previously would scarcely believe that waves had ever rolled over the 
spot where now fertile corn-plantations extend themselves to all sides, 
so wonderfully have all things changed here in a short space of time." 
— Bernal Diaz, vol, i. p. 220. 



INDIAN WARFARE. 253 

town, seized the unresisting Guatemozin, and shouted 
victory. 

It requires a familiarity with Spanish character, and 
the Moorish, Oriental origin of their literature, in order 
to read Spanish-American military annals understand- 
ingly, as much so as it does a knowledge of Indian 
character in order to sift out the truth from accounts 
of Indian wars. The superstitious dread which the Az- 
tecs at all times evinced for the Spanish horses and 
horsemen is common to all savages.* The appearance 

* Moffatt's Southern Africa, page 242, furnishes the following com- 
plete illustration of the effect produced by hoi'semen and fire-arms upon 
savage warriors. "The commando approached within 150 yards with 
a view to beckon some one to come out. On this, the enemy com- 
menced their terrible howl, and at once discharged their clubs and jav- 
elins. Their black, dismal appearance and savage fury, with their 
hoarse and stentorian voices, were calculated to daunt ; and the Griquas 
[horsemen], on their first attack, wisely retreated to a short distance, 
and then drew up. Waterboer, the chief, commenced firing, and level- 
ed one of their warriors to the ground ; several more instantly shared 
the same fate. It was confidently expected that their courage would 
be daunted when they saw their warriors fall by an invisible weapon, 
and it was hoped they would be humbled and alarmed, that thus fur- 
ther bloodshed might be prevented. Though they beheld with aston- 
ishment the dead and the stricken warriors writhing in the dust, they 
looked with lion-like fierceness at the horsemen, and yelled vengeance, 
violently wrenching the weapons from the hands of their dying com- 
panions to supply the place of those they had discharged at their antag- 
onists. Sufficient intervals were afforded, and every encouragement 
held out for them to make proposals, but all was ineffectual. They 
sallied forth with increased vigor, so as to oblige the Griquas to retreat, 
though only to a short distance, for they never attempted to pursue 
above 200 yards from their camp. The firing, though without any or- 
der, was very destructive, as each took a steady aim. Many of their 
chief men fell victims to their own temerity, after manifesting undaunt- 
ed spirit. Again and again the chiefs and Mr. Melville met to deliber- 
ate on how to act to prevent bloodshed among a people who determined 
to die rather than flee, which they could easily have done. 

" Soon after the battle commenced, theBechuanas came up, and united 
in playing on the enemy with poisoned arrows, but they were soon driven 
back ; half a dozen of the fierce Mantatecs [the enemy] made the whole 
body scamper off in wild disorder. After two hours and a half's com- 
bat, the Griquas, finding their ammunition fast diminishing, at the almost 
certain risk of loss of life, began to storm [charge], when the enemy gave 



254 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

of two or three horses, kept ready for that purpose, was 
sufficient to restore the battle after the Spaniards had 

way, taking a westerly direction. The horsemen, however, intercepted 
them, when they immediately descended toward the ravine, as if determ- 
ined not to return by the way they came, which they crossed, but were 
again intercepted. On turning round they seemed desperate, but were 
again soon repulsed. Great confusion now prevailed, the ground being 
very stony, which rendered it difficult to manage the horses. At this 
moment an awful scene was presented to the view. The undulating 
country around was covered with warriors all in motion, so that it was 
difficult to say who were enemies or who were friends. Clouds of dust 
were rising from the immense masses, who appeared flying with terror 
or pursuing with fear. To the alarming confusion was added the bel- 
lowing of oxen, the vociferations of the yet unvanquished warriors, 
mingled with the groans of the dying, and the widows' piercing wail, 
and the cries from infant voices. The enemy again directed their 
course toward a town which was in possession of a, tribe of the same 
people still more numerous. Here again another desperate struggle 
ensued, when they appeared determined to inclose the horsemen within 
the smoke and flames of the houses, through which they were slowly 
passing, giving the enemy time to escape. At last, seized with despair, 
they fled precipitately. It had been observed during the fight that 
some women went backward and forward to the town, only about half 
a mile distant, apparently with the most perfect indifference to their 
fearful situation. While the commando was struggling between hope 
and despair of being able to rout the enemy, information was brought 
that the half of the enemy, under Choane, were reposing in the town, 
within sound of the guns, perfectly regardless of the fate of the other 
division, under the command of Karagauye. It was supposed they pos- 
sessed entire confidence in the yet invincible army of the latter, being 
the more warlike of the two. Humanly speaking, had both parties been 
together, the day would have been lost, when they would with perfect 
ease have carried devastation into the centre of the colony [of the Cape]. 
When both parties were united, they set fire to all parts of the town, and 
appeared to be taking their departure, proceeding in an immense body 
toward the north. If their number may be calculated by the space of 
ground occupied by the entire body, it must have amounted to upward 
of 40,000. The Griquas pursued them about eight miles; and though 
they continued desperate, they seemed filled with terror at the enemies 

by whom they had been overcome As fighting was not my 

province, I avoided discharging a single shot, though, at the request of 
Mr. Melville and the chiefs, I remained with the commando as the only 
means of safety. Seeing the savage fei-ocity of the Bechuanas in kill- 
ing the inoffensive women and children for the sake of a few paltry 
rings, or to boast that they had killed some of the Mantatees, I turned 
my attention to these objects of pity, who were flying in consternation 
in all directions. By my galloping in among them, many of the Be- 



IMPECCABILITY OP CORTEZ's ACCOUNT. 255 

taken to their heels. And while the facts of the siege 
amount to little more than keeping possession of the nar- 
row causeways, by aid of superior implements of war, 
until famine and thirst had done their work, yet the 
Spanish histories of the Conquest make it to surpass in 
interest, and in the magnitude of forces engaged, almost 
any siege on record. And so plausibly is the narrative 
written, that the reader drinks it in with breathless anx- 
iety, without once stopping to ask himself how so many 
hundreds of thousands of Indians could be fed in a salt 
valley, inclosed by high mountains, without the aid of 
a regularly organized commissariat department, or how 
such masses of undisciplined Indians could be manceu- 

chuanas were deterred from their barbarous purpose. Shortly after they 
began to retreat, the women, seeing that mercy was shown them, instead 
of flying, generally sat down, and, baring their bosoms, exclaimed, 'I 
am a woman. I am a woman.' It seemed impossible for the men to 
yield. There were several instances of wounded men being surround- 
ed by fifty Bcchuanas, but it w r as not till life was almost extinct that a 
single one would allow himself to be conquered. I saw more than one 
instance of a man fighting boldly with ten or twelve spears or arrows 
fixed in his body. . . . The men, struggling with death, would raise 
themselves from the ground, and discharge their weapons at any one of 
our number within their reach : their hostile and revengeful spirit 
only ceased when life was extinct. Contemplating this deadly conflict, 
we could not but admire the mercy of God that not one of our number 
was killed, and only one slightly wounded. One Bechuana lost his 
life while too eagerly seeking for plunder. The slain of the enemy 
was between four and five hundred. 

" The Mantatees are a tall, robust people, in features resembling the 
Bechuanas ; the dress, consisting of prepared ox-hides, hanging doubly 
over their shoulders. The men, during the engagement, were nearly 
naked, having on their heads a round cockade of black ostrich feathers. 
Their ornaments were large copper rings, sometimes eight in number, 
worn round their necks, with numerous arm, leg, and ear rings of the 
same material. Their weapons were war-axes of various shapes, and 
clubs. Into many of their knob-sticks were inserted pieces of iron re- 
sembling a sickle, but more curved, sometimes to a circle, and sharp on 
the outside. They appeared more rude and barbarous than the tribes 
around us, the natural consequences of the warlike life they had led. 
They were suffering dreadfully from want ; even in the heat of battle, 
the poorest class seized pieces of meat and devoured them raw." 



256 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

vred upon a narrow causeway, where numbers add no 
strength, but only tend to augment the confusion — where, 
as in this case, there had to be a daily advance and re- 
treat in presence of an active enemy. 

The interesting note which we have copied describes 
an event within the memory of the present generation. 
And it is well recollected what trepidation was caused 
in that colony of the British Empire by the approach to 
the frontier of a nation of barbarians who despised fear, 
whose religion was war, and who knew no sin like that 
of turning the back to any enemy. Yet a hundred 
horsemen, with firearms, from a missionary village, un- 
accustomed to war, were sufficient to turn back this 
mighty host of brave savages. It can not be claimed 
that the Aztecs were superior to these Mantatees, or 
that the force of Cortez was inferior in equipment to the 
hundred un warlike Griquas whose " thunder and light- 
ning" (as they termed the musketry) drove them back. 
The missionary was a Protestant, a man of truth, and 
had no glory to win, and therefore told only the simple 
truth. Cortez, out of a much inferior affair, has fabri- 
cated a romance, with such verisimilitude that he has 
astonished the world by an- account of achievements 
which he never performed. To write well is nine tenths 
of a hero ; and in the time of Cortez, as it is even now 
at Mexico, it was the easiest thing imaginable to manu- 
facture an astonishing victory out of the very smallest 
amount of material. If no lives were lost in the battle, 
so much more astounding is the victory. This practice 
of sacrificing human life is only a modification of canni- 
balism, and the very mission on which the Spaniards 
came to Mexico was to extinguish that crime, so that 
they would jeopardize their title to the country should 
they presume to shed the blood of each other in their in- 
terminable wars. And so long as onlv women, and 



MORGAN AND CORTEZ. 257 

children, and Indians are the sufferers, they do no vio- 
lence to the rules of warfare which Cortez and the Con- 
quistadors introduced. The armies of Mexico have never 
been deficient in good writers ; a specimen of the capa- 
city of one of them I have already given in the chapter on 
Texas ; so that their stately and dignified histories of 
the national squabbles of the last thirty years are equal 
to Cortez in gross exaggeration, and not a whit behind 
him in elegance of composition. 

A hundred years after the conquest of Mexico, there 
sailed out of the harbor of Port Royal, now Kingston, 
in Jamaica, an unlawful military enterprise, about equal 
in force to that with which Cortez first landed at Yera 
Cruz, but immensely inferior to the panic-stricken host 
that fled by night from the city of Mexico. The fitting 
out of this unlawful expedition, like that of Cortez, had 
the connivance of the local authorities. The difference 
between the two was, that Morgan did not understand 
the Spanish Oriental style of proclaiming his own hero- 
ism, and furthermore, his expedition was not directed 
against a miserably-armed rabble of Indians, but against 
the fortified city of Panama, held by a garrison of royal 
troops. 

Mooring his little fleet in the harbor of Chagres, Mor- 
gan marched his small force across the Isthmus, which 
then presented greater difficulties to his passage with can- 
non and munitions of war than Cortez encountered in 
his march to Mexico. Like Cortez in his first expedi- 
tion, Morgan met with no opposition in his first visit to 
Panama, but, with his men, lived at free quarters in riot- 
ing and debauchery, committing those atrocities that pi- 
rates alone can commit, until, their appetites and their 
passions being satiated, they returned to the Gulf coast, 
taking with them the plunder of a city which was then 
the depository of the treasures drawn from South Amer- 



258 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

ica. They returned a second time to Panama, as Cortez 
did to Mexico. This time they met with resistance, but 
they carried the town by assault, and devoted it to utter 
destruction. Their efforts were seconded by a terrible 
earthquake, from which the people fled, and built a new 
city at a distance of a few miles from the ruins. 

For more than two hundred years the rank vegetation 
of a tropical forest has been driving its massive roots 
beneath its foundations, and yet the ruins of Panama 
still bear the marks of having once been a city of much 
magnificence. Two massive stone bridges, a pavement, 
diverse broken walls, and a solid tower standing up above 
the tops of the tall forest-trees, proclaim the incontrovert- 
ible fact that the traces of a large city can not be alto- 
gether blotted out in the course of a few centuries. 

Morgan has never gratified the world with a narrative 
of his adventures, nor has any of his gang enlightened 
us with a history of the conquest of Panama, nor has 
any Saxon bishop Lorenzana yet been found so lost to 
all moral sense as to commend the piety of such infa- 
mous men. And yet, in the boldness of his enterprise, 
in the courage of its execution, in the amount of plun- 
der realized, in military talent and prowess, Morgan the 
pirate was incalculably superior to Cortez the hero. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

The new City of Mexico. — The Discoveries of Gold. — Euins at Mexi- 
co. — The Monks, and what Cortez gained by his Piety. — The City of 
Mexico again rebuilt. — The City under Ravillagigedo. — The Nation- 
al Palace. — The Cathedral. — A whole Museum turned Saints. — All 
kneel together. — The San Carlos Academy of Arts. — Reign of Car- 
los III. — The Mineria. 

The city of Mexico, as rebuilt by Cortez, was but an 
humble affair. The small amount of plunder realized 
from the city destroyed ; the necessity for large remit- 
tances to secure peace at the Spanish court ; the gen- 
eral poverty and destitution of the Indians inhabiting 
the surrounding villages, and the narrow limits of the 
Aztec empire, were great impediments in the way of 
erecting a magnificent city. On a small scale, he resem- 
bled Santa Anna in the activity with which he could or- 
ganize an army after defeat, or resuscitate affairs when 
apparently irretrievable. He knew how to improve the 
most slender means to the accomplishment of ulterior 
purposes. Perseverance is not one of the leading char- 
acteristics of the Spanish race, yet it is surprising to see 
how much they will often accomplish with what would 
appear to us totally inadequate means. Such was emi- 
nently the talent of Cortez. Surrounded by disappoint- 
ed men, who had been lured to the country by magnifi- 
cent pictures of its resources, he still went on extending 
his conquests among the surrounding tribes. 

Fortunately, the most precious of all metals is obtain- 
ed by the most simple process, and the gold-washings 
of the Mescala and other parts of the south, which the 
Indians had but partially wrought, received more atten- 



260 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

tion as soon as they learned how readily the precious 
metal could be exchanged for the gewgaws of the Euro- 
peans. Gold dust was greedily exchanged for its weight 
in bright silver coins, and an ounce of gold was not un- 
frequently given for a bright-colored handkerchief. In 
a few months the means for the organization of a com- 
munity were obtained from the gold-diggings. Nothing 
tends so much to elevate the lowly as the discovery of 
gold-washings, in which individual effort, and not ma- 
chinery, is the ruling power, and the producer of wealth. 
But even a gold country has its evils ; for nowhere have 
I ever seen so many disappointed men as at the very 
place where an abundance of gold could be had for sim- 
ply washing it out of the mud ; and nowhere have I 
seen so large a proportion of unemployed men as on the 
spot where the wages of labor were fabulously high. 
Still, with all these drawbacks, the city of Cortez rapid- 
ly progressed under the stimulus of gold discoveries, un- 
til he found the wildest of his dreams falling short of the 
reality. 

The new city did not occupy the exact position of its 
Indian predecessor, but was clustered around the still re- 
maining navigable canals, upon the southern border, 
while the main portion of the old city, which lay toward 
the northern limits of the island — where to this day such 
an abundant supply of earthen gods is to be found by 
digging — was left a mass of ruins. These were not, by 
any means, the ruins of fallen stone walls, or capitals, 
or columns, but shapeless masses of earth, which pro- 
claim most unmistakably the kind of magnificence which 
distinguished the ancient capital of the Aztec empire. 

The monks, who scented gold as buzzards scent car- 
rion, began early to discover the growing wealth of this 
new city, and soon a party of a dozen Franciscans, in 
sackcloth with downcast visages, approached the city. 



THE MONKS IN MEXICO. 261 

They came, not as religious teachers, but as spiritual 
scavengers, who had consecrated their lives for gold to 
clean out the road to heaven for the vilest sinners. 
Cortez, who had been the greatest sinner, was now the 
greatest penitent. The whole city was moved at the 
coming of these holy men, who carried the cross before 
them, but forgot not the cards and the dice in their pock- 
ets — who daily, in the mass, consecrated spiritual bread 
for famishing souls, and at night spent the wages of their 
piety at the gambling-table. To the surprise of his fel- 
low-profligates, and to the astonishment of the Indians, 
Cortez, walking barefooted, led the procession that es- 
corted the monks from near the spot where his brigan- 
tines had sailed among the corn-fields of Iztapalapan to 
the little chapel he had partly finished, and which now 
stands in the yard of the Franciscans.* He was so zeal- 
ous in the performance of his devotions and his pen- 
ances that he won the affections of the holy fathers to 
such a degree that he ever found faithful supporters in 
the powerful order of Saint Francis in all his troubles 
at the Spanish court. The question of his sincerity 
mattered little to them. It was the benefit of his pub- 
lic example which they, above all things, desired in their 
search after golden treasures. To get gold and to grat- 
ify their vices was their pious calling. Though they 
boast of having baptized some 6000 Indians, this argues 
nothing, except as it tends to show the numbers of the 
Indian population of the valley ; for, as a badge of their 
subjugation, the Indians received Christian baptism ; and 
truly it has been said of them, " They feared the Lord, 
but served their graven images." 

We have now a sadder tale to tell ; one that philan- 

* As it is an unimportant question whether Cortez first built a chapel 
for the Franciscans back of the Cathedral, or the one in the yard of the 
Franciscans, I here repeat the popular tradition. 



262 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

thropists have grieved over so often. Gold-washings 
are soon exhausted, but they frequently lead to the dis- 
covery of silver mines, which become so profitable as to 
drive away the very memory of the gold-washings. 
Thus the fact that gold-washings ever existed in Mex- 
ico, or even in Brazil, is almost forgotten, and the places 
where those washings were rests in vague tradition. 

But while gold is procured by the most simple process, 
to extract silver requires science, and an immense expen- 
diture of labor and machinery, in delving to the very bow- 
els of the earth, and in separating the slight percentage 
of pure silver from the mass of ore. In this exhausting 
labor, which is often assigned to convicts, Indians were 
employed until they gave up the ghost. The conquer- 
ors had appropriated to themselves the best-looking of 
the Indian females, while their husbands — for Indians 
marry very early in life — were consigned to the mines 
as laborers and carriers in the bowels of the mountain. 
From this promiscuous intercourse, so early introduced, 
has arisen the present mixed-blood population of Mexi- 
co. The offspring of sin, they are a nation of sinners. 
The pure Indians are the descendants chiefly of the un- 
enslaved tribes, like the Tlascalans and Tezcucans, who 
carried on the subsequent wars of Cortez, and the whites 
are mostly descendants of later immigrations. 

In a former chapter we have seen that the evils which 
California suffered in the first years of its existence af- 
flicted Mexico down to the time of the great inundation 
of 1629 ; and from the pen of an eye-witness we have 
given a picture of the state of society at that time. But 
during the five years that the water rested on the city, 
its superabundant wealth disappeared ; many of the no- 
bility and gentry withdrew to Puebla, carrying with 
them their treasures and their vices, while multitudes of 
the poorer classes perished. So that when the Virgin 



THE VICEROY EAVILLAGIGEDO. 263 

of Guadalupe, in her great mercy to an afflicted people, 
caused the earth to open and swallow up the great ex- 
cess of waters, they had become a sobered and a more 
moral population. It is from this abating of the waters 
in the year 1634 that we have to date the origin of the 
present city of Mexico ; for the foundations of all the 
buildings except those about the Cathedral were so much 
softened by five years of soaking that they could not be 
relied on ; and a new city grew up upon new foundations. 
This is the Mexico of the present day ; a city more ele- 
gant than substantial, and dependent more upon the plas- 
ter and colored washings of its walls than solid masonry 
for its apparent durability. 

It was the great Vice-king Ravillagigedo, toward the 
close of the last century (1789), who gave the fin- 
ishing strokes to the city, and established its reputation 
as the finest city on this continent while the vice-king- 
dom continued. It was then one of the best-lighted cit- 
ies to be found, while in its paving he expended the large 
sum of $347,715.* We have seen, in our own day and 
in our own large cities, the popular applause which fol- 
lows the rigid enforcement of wholesome ordinances ; 
and it may be well supposed that in a city like Mexico, 
such an unusual proceeding would elevate the fearless 
magistrate in popular estimation, and make him the sub- 
ject of all kind of apocryphal anecdotes. 

The best of the anecdotes illustrating his sternness in 
enforcing city ordinances is the following : A police offi- 
cer once reported to him the case of the occupants of a 
house who had neglected sweeping in front of their 
premises. He informed him that the family had con- 
sisted of a widowed mother and two daughters, but that 
the mother had died during the previous night, and that, 
instead of sweeping the street as usual, the daughters 
* Humboldt, Essai Politique. 



264 MEXICO AND ITS KEL1GION. 

sat at the door weeping, and soliciting money of passers- 
by to "bmy the dead body. " Return," said the viceroy 
sternly to the officer, " and stand at the door until there 
are twelve shillings (a dollar and a half) in the plate, and 
then take it, and bring it and the offenders to me." The 
officer did as directed. " Deliver the money to the mu- 
nicipal treasurer, in payment of the fine for violating the 
city ordinance," said the vice-king to the officer, "and 
then return to your duty." He then turned to the or- 
phans : "I hear that your mother is dead, and that you 
wish to obtain the means of burying her. Here is an 
order on your parish priest, who will bury your mother, 
and here is a trifle for yourselves," he said, handing to 
each of them a gold ounce. They went their way, bless- 
ing the man that had succored them in their necessity. 
This early example of the rigid enforcement of city ordi- 
nances has never been forgotten in Mexico, where, con- 
sidering its limited means, for its revenue* does not ex- 

* As my readers may be a little curious to know how the city gov- 
ernment is sustained, I translate the statement of city revenue of 1851. 

There were in that year 379 licensed pulque-shops, yielding 

a revenue of $65,297 

538 retail grocer shops in which liquor is sold by the gill 25,609 

8 breweries pay a city tax of 1,697 

132 cafes, fondas, and eating-houses pay 4,418 

Tax on grain and bread consumed in the city 53,762 

Public diversions, $3103 ; permitted plays (not gambling), 

$3221 6,324 

Tax on canals, $6798; tax on coaches, $20,157; markets, 

$56,130. 83,085 

Donation of the proceeds of a bull-fight 830 

Gifts, in bread and meat, to the prisons 4,561 

A tax of one dollar on the slaughtering of 21,984 beef-cattle 21,984 

16,404 calves were slaughtered, paying six shillings tax 12,303 

145,040 sheep, at one shilling and sixpence 27,194 

9394 pigs paid five shillings tax, or 5,870 

42,734 swine, full grown, paid six shillings 32,055 

7750 goats and kids, at one shilling and sixpence 1,453 

Tax on property entering the city gates 1,878 

Licenses to slaughter to individuals 136 



THE NATIONAL PALACE. 265 

ceed $400,000, including its landed rents, its govern- 
ment is well sustained, and its laws better enforced than 
in many of our own cities. Its police consists of a mil- 
itary patrol,* who, oddly enough, perform the duties of 
lamplighters. 

The National Palace is an immense structure, which 
occupies the eastern front of the Grand Plaza, and is 
sometimes foolishly called the Halls of the Montezumas. 
It contains within itself all the offices of government, 

The water rents of $20,000 were consumed in repairs. 

The tax on fish yielded $390 

The balance of the revenue consists of certain city properties. 

Expenditures. 

The heaviest items are for the public prisons $69,863 

For the hospitals of the insane 48,000 

Lancasterian schools 3,600 

Lights and city patrol 52,422 

Exhibition of flowers and fruits in November last 1,831 

Salaries of school-teachers, and rent of houses for schools ....... 4,812 

Religious worship in Hospital of San Hippolito, and for vaccine 

matter 2,282 

Cleaning the streets by night and by day 21,378 

Salaries 31,472 

Dinners and festivals 151 

The city has a debt of $617,978, and has, as a set-off, a claim against 
the supreme government for $1,700,000 of its funds seized from time 
to time, and for keeping prisoners. 

* The arrests in the year 1851 were 212 men and 182 women for 
infractions of police regulations ; 1256 men and 1944 women for ex- 
cessive drinking; 384 men and 120 women for robbery; 180 men and 
84 women on suspicion of robbery ; 120 men and 25 women for picking 
pockets ; 15 men and 3 women for murder ; 728 men and 246 women 
for affrays and wounds; 209 men and 85 women for carrying forbidden 
weapons ; 36 men who had escaped from prison ; 39 men and 17 wom- 
en for false pretenses ; 354 men and 403 women for incontinence and 
adultery ; 31 1 men and 318 women for the violation of public decency ; 
64 delinquent youth for the house of correction — making a total of ar- 
rests for the year of 3918 men and 3430 women ; besides, they have 
protected 315 persons apprehensive of assaults from evil-doers. And 
they have freed the city from the plague of 6018 dogs! Just as many dogs 
arrested as human beings. These statistics furnish an inadequate idea 
of the number of knife-fights that are of so common occurrence among 
the peons about the pulque-s\\o\)$, in which women and men show an 
equal skill at stabbing in the back. 

M 



266 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

besides the barracks of the President's guard. Besides 
being the city residence of the President himself, it con- 
tains the two halls that were formerly occupied by the 
two legislative bodies, the Senate and the Chamber of 
Deputies, while such a burlesque of our free institutions 
existed in Mexico. In this palace also was the Nation- 
al Mint, so long as any body would trust the nation 
with his silver bars to coin ; but, now that the mint is 
farmed out, it is removed to a private establishment. In 
this building are all the archives of the vice-kingdom and 
the republic, and he who would study the history of the 
past must diligently labor here. 

The Cathedral is upon the northern side of the Grand 
Plaza, and is said to occupy the site of the great teocalli, 
and to have a rocky foundation. Whether this last as- 
sertion is really true, I have no means of verifying, but 
there must be something unusual about its foundations, 
as its towers are the only ones that I know of in the 
city that do not lean a little. Ninety years was this 
vast edifice, or, rather, pile of edifices, in building, and 
the amount of treasure expended in its construction 
seems to a stranger to be fabulous. The best of its 
many fine views, or, rather, the one I admire the most, 
is the one from the entrance to the National Palace, 
though the one most commonly given is that from the 
front of the Municipality building, which occupies the en- 
tire south front of the Plaza. 

The interior of the Cathedral is certainly imposing, 
but I had so early in life attached the idea of the Gothic 
architecture to every thing magnificent in the way of 
churches, that this Moro- Spanish style fails to produce 
an effect commensurate with the merits of the build- 
ing. Again, images are not associated with my early 
ideas of divine worship ; and when, passing from side al- 
tar to side altar, I feel that I am only looking at wax 



IMAGES IN THE CATHEDKAL. 267 

figures, they produce no solemnity in me. And when I 
afterward learned, or thought I learned, that the show- 
man of the strolling museum got his " wax figures" at 
the same shop, or from the same moulds in which were 
cast the images of the saints, they call up the idea of 
Punch and Judy. 

Before these images I have seen hundreds of worship- 
ers prostrate, repeating their prayers with the most pro- 
found reverence, while the sight of the image filled me 
with boyish glee that I could hardly suppress. The 
identical image that was labeled Bluebeard in the mu- 
seum is now Saint Peter. The "Disconsolate Widow" 
is now "the Weeping Virgin." Charlotte Temple, and 
the baby that never knew its father, is now Mary and 
the infant Christ. Macbeth, looking as though he had 
the toothache, is Saint Francis. Othello is here a saint ; 
and the sleeping Desdemona is now the sleeping Yirgin. 
The monster that poisoned six husbands, and sits med- 
itating the death of a seventh, is now dressed in the lat- 
est Paris finery, and is a saint. The old miser, who 
laid up such hoards while he starved himself to death, 
is here placed among saints ; the clothes are different, 
but there is the same forbidding visage. Here, too, are 
the Queen of Sheba, the Babes in the Wood, the Belle 
of the West, the Terrible Brigand, and Sir William 
Wallace — -all transformed into images of saints, before 
whom the people bow down with the most profound rev- 
erence, and to whose intercession they commit the salva- 
tion of their souls. 

I do not know whether the showman or the priests 
are to blame for my irreverence, or whether it is the fault 
of the system itself. The argument in favor of the ado- 
ration of images is that they make impressions on the 
senses which aid devotion ; but, if the impressions made 
on my senses are to be considered, the whole tendency 



268 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

is to debase the immortal Maker of heaven and earth be- 
low the level of humanity, " and to change the image of 
the incorruptible God into an image made like to cor- 
ruptible man." There was abundant proof of this in the 
tabernacle of our Lady of Remedies above the great al- 
tar of the Cathedral. There sits enthroned this cast-off 
bauble of some nursery, emblazoned with jewels enougli 
to supply the means to educate the whole population of 
Mexico. To this piece of dilapidated wood and plaster 
of Paris are conceded attributes of God Almighty : to 
grant rain in times of drought ; health in times of pes- 
tilence ; a safe delivery to women in peril of childbirth ; 
and before it, in times of public calamity, the highest 
dignitaries walk in solemn procession. 

Nothing disgusts an Anglo-Saxon more than to wit- 
ness the mental degradation of the descendants of the 
Castilians, the slaves of superstition, craft, and impos- 
ture. From generation to generation they have lived in 
constant fear of the secret agents of the Inquisition, and 
of the evil spirits that are ever plotting against the peace 
of good Christians. The permanency of the laws of Na- 
ture, the very foundation of all self-reliance and courage, 
is believed to be at the caprice of every one of a legion 
of saints, each of whom has been canonized on proof of 
working a miracle. Truth, and honesty, and chastity 
are subordinate virtues, and only a slavish devotion to 
his conscience-keeper can sustain a believer in the hour 
of greatest necessity. 

There are important truths to be learned in Mexico, 
and even in this immense pile of buildings devoted to 
superstition. Among these is the perfect equality that 
should exist in a place of worship. Here the rich and 
the poor meet together upon a level ; the well-dressed 
lady and the market-woman are here kneeling together 
before the same image. The distinctions of wealth and 



THE SAN CARLOS. 269 

rank are for the moment forgotten. While I was looking 
on and admiring this state of things, I saw a market- 
man on his return homeward with an empty hen-coop on 
his back. He walked boldly up, and knelt among the 
body of worshipers, told his beads, and then started up 
and trudged on his homeward journey. This equality 
is only for an hour, and hardly so long ; yet it is an hour 
daily, and must have its effect in this country of inequal- 
ities in reminding the most humble that this inequality 
is only for this world, and that at the termination of life 
all will stand upon a common level. 

The San Carlos, or Academy of Arts,is now in a flour- 
ishing condition, on account of the success of the lottery 
that supports it. The number of students here gra- 
tuitously instructed in different branches of art is quite 
large. Here, too, it is refreshing to see equality tri- 
umphant ; the child of the peon and of the prince sit 
side by side, and on the days of public exhibition, the 
crowds that throng its halls are admitted gratuitously, 
and are of as miscellaneous a character as are its pupils. 
The pictures of Pangre are the present great attraction, 
and every new production of his genius gains him addi- 
tional applause. The works that Humboldt so much 
admired are still here, but since his time there have been 
added several marbles of considerable merit. 

This Academy of San Carlos is one of the many mon- 
uments of that greatest of the kings of Spain since the 
Conquest, Don Carlos III., though not brought into full 
operation until the reign of his imbecile successor, Carlos 
IY. All the monuments of which Mexico can boast at 
this day are traceable to the reign of the only enlightened 
Spanish prince of whom Spain can boast in a period of 
300 years. Nearly a hundred years have elapsed since the 
foundation of this academy, and it has not yet produced 
a man of the first class either in painting or sculpture. 



270 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

The College of Mines, the finest building in this city, 
is another exhibition of the liberal spirit which governed 
in the reign of Don Carlos. Under this prince a new 
code of mining laws had been digested, strikingly resem- 
bling the present miner's rules in California. Their im- 
mediate effect was almost to double the production of 
silver, while the Mineria was both a school to impart 
scientific knowledge in relation to mining, and a bank to 
advance money to develop new mineral enterprises. 
Its support now rests upon the tax it is authorized to 
levy of one shilling upon every mark ($8) of silver pro- 
duced. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 

The National Museum.-— Marianna and Cortez. — The small Value of 
this Collection. — The Botanic Garden. — The Market of Santa Anna. 
— The Acordada Prison. — The unfortunate Prisoner. — The Causes 
of that Night of Terror.— The Sacking of the City.— The Parian.— 
The Causes of the Bum of the Parian. — Change in the Standard of 
Color. — The Ashes of Corte'z. 

The National Museum has its weekly exhibitions, 
and attracts as great a crowd of the common people as 
does the Academy of Arts. Here as perfect equality 
reigns as in the San Carlos or in the Cathedral. The 
first object of interest is the large collection of stone 
idols which have been dug up from time to time in and 
about the Grand Plaza. There are dog-faced idols, and 
apish gods, and unearthly things, besides the sacrifi- 
cial stone, and a rude attempt to represent a goddess. 
Whether or no this was a sort of Aztec Lady of Reme- 
dies I did not learn. The Aztecs might easily have pro- 
duced these works without exhibiting much civilization ; 
but I have heard it surmised that they must have been 
among the plunder of more civilized tribes. 

On the two opposite sides of the first hall we entered, 
I saw spread out the pictorial chronology of two dynas- 
ties that had passed away — the vice-regal line of poten- 
tates standing over against the royal line of Aztec em- 
perors. The portraits of the vice-kings, from Cortez 
down to the last of his successors, stretch entirely across 
one side of the hall, and about the same number of In- 
dian caciques are daubed upon a piece of papyrus that is 
fastened upon the opposite wall. It requires the great- 
est possible stretch of liberality for one accustomed to 



272 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

Indian efforts of this kind to dignify such intolerable 
daubs with the name of paintings. And yet this is the 
picture-writing of the Aztecs, with which the world has 
been so edified for centuries. If there is or ever was an 
Iroquois Indian that should undertake to stain so mis- 
erably, I verily believe he would be expelled from his 
tribe. To make it manifest that this was intended for a 
chronological record of the imperial line, black lines were 
daubed from one of these effigies to another. From a 
printed label in Spanish affixed to this wonderful relic, 
I learned that it was intended to represent the wander- 
ings of the Aztecs from California. 

It is usual for North American Indians to store up 
traditions of the extensive wanderings of their ances- 
tors, and if one is asked to represent the tradition on 
bark, he would produce very much such an affair as this, 
though with a somewhat greater resemblance to the hu- 
man form. Another picture represents Marianna, the 
mistress of Cortez, with her rosary, and Cortez with his 
fingers in much such a position as boys place them in 
when they wish to convey the idea that they have per- 
petrated a joke — a very satisfactory method of repre- 
senting the piety of Cortez. Close by the pious couple 
is the representation of a scene which they seem to have 
come out to witness. A bloodhound is represented tear- 
ing an Indian to pieces, while a Spaniard is holding on 
to the end of the dog's chain. 

The banner under which Cortez fought, or rather 
one of them — for he had two — is here preserved in a 
gilt frame. It represents the Virgin Mary portrayed on 
crimson silk. In this hall is also a miniature represen- 
tation of a silver mine, with the workmen at their sever- 
al branches of labor. The remains of the vice-regal 
throne are here piled up in a corner. 

In the next room there are some paintings of no very 



MUSEUM. BOTANIC GARDEN. MARKET. 273 

great value, which should have been kept in the Acade- 
my; also a miniature fortress and a small mineral col- 
lection, and any quantity of specimens of Indian idols, 
so misshapen as to be unfit for use as images of the 
Virgin and of the saints. 

As a Yice-royal and National Museum, the whole af- 
fair is beneath contempt. If the few articles in it that are 
valuable were divided between the Mineria and the San 
Carlos, and the rest thrown away, it would be an advant- 
age to all concerned. The Indian relics in this muse- 
um are not only much inferior to the specimens of the 
art of the savage islanders of the South Seas, but im- 
mensely inferior to many private collections of Indian 
curiosities that I have seen, and they go far to demon- 
strate the entire absence of civilized arts among the abo- 
riginal inhabitants of Mexico. 

In an interior court of the museum is the Botanic Gar- 
den. This, like the National Museum, is a paltry affair. 
With the exception of the Jfanolita, or tree that bears 
a flower resembling the human hand, of which there are 
but two in the Republic, there is nothing deserving of 
notice in this garden. In the large interior court of San 
Francisco a Frenchman has, as a private speculation, 
opened a garden and made a collection of the national 
plants of Mexico that is well worth a visit. In this pri- 
vate garden is one of the finest and rarest collections of 
the cactus family that I have ever seen, either in Mexi- 
co or elsewhere. 

The market of Santa Anna is the central market of 
the city. It adjoins the palace, and is close to the canal. 
The products of the chinampas are here displayed to the 
best advantage. As Mexico is within easy marketing 
distance of the hot country, we have here daily present- 
ed the fresh productions of two ^zones. This is one of 
the places where the appetite of a stranger can not only 

M2 



274 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

be gratified with the greatest variety of delicacies ever 
collected in one spot, but the excellency and abundance 
of the articles presented are perplexing to the person who 
would venture upon the bold experiment of tasting every 
new article offered to him. As a vegetable and flower 
market, it has no equal. 

The Acordada Prison is the principal state as well as 
city prison. Here are confined men charged with every 
offense, from rioting to murder. Oftentimes these ex- 
tremes are found together in the interior court of the 
prison, where the felon, with his hands steeped in inno- 
cent blood, is entertaining a crowd of novices in crime 
with the details of his adventures, and of his many hair- 
breadth escapes from the cruel officers of the law. He 
is as eloquent in giving lessons to novices as his com- 
peers in our own prisons, and he carefully instructs his 
hopeful pupils in the best ways of avenging their wrongs 
upon society. Some in the prison are merry, and enjoy 
a dance, while others are indulging in obscene jests and 
ribaldry. Still, there are those that find means to labor 
and to work at repairing shoes or clothes in the midst of 
this babel of sin and tumult. 

The Acordada gave its name to that night insurrec- 
tion to which I have so often referred. Two regiments 
of artillery, quartered in the palace of the Inquisition, 
pronounced against the legality of the election of Pedra- 
za to the presidency. One night they took possession 
of the Acordada, where they were joined by the whole 
body of desperadoes there confined. Among the persons 
at that time detained in this prison, and on that night 
wantonly killed, was an Englishman, who had been kept 
in prison for several years, charged with the singular of- 
fense of having married the daughter of an ex-marquis. 
There had been romance in his courtship and romance in 
his marriage, but it had not met with the approbation of 



THE ACOKDADA. 275 

the father, who unfortunately had influence enough to 
get the newly-married man into prison, and to keep him 
there. At last the father had relented, and on the next 
day the poor Englishman was to have been set at liber- 
ty. Long and trying had been the sufferings of the un- 
fortunate man, doomed to pass the best years of his life 
among robbers and assassins. Though every thing that 
kindness could do to lighten his sufferings had been done 
by his own countrymen, yet the weary years of impris- 
onment, superadded to the sudden blasting of his hopes, 
had brought premature old age upon him while yet in 
the prime of life. But now all was forgotten in antici- 
pation of a to-morrow that he was never to see. When 
the attack was made upon the prison, he went to the door 
of his cell to learn the cause of so unusual a disturbance, 
and was instantly killed — the first victim of the night of 
the Acordada. 

On that fearful night the Acordada was unusually full 
of desperadoes, whom the civil disorders and stagnation 
of business had driven to crime. A battle in the night 
in the streets of a large city is a fearful thing, at least 
when cannon are the chief weapons used ; but when there 
is added to this cause of alarm that the news had spread 
through the city that all the murderers and housebreak- 
ers in the prison had been let loose, with arms in their 
hands, to murder and to ravage the city, an idea may be 
formed of the terror of a population who were cowards 
by instinct. The contempt with which they had re- 
garded the lower orders was to be fearfully retaliated. 
Hate, mingled with avarice, and inflamed by pulque and 
bad liquor, was to do its work, and that, too, without 
pity. Men, untamed by kindness of those above them, 
were now the masters of the lives and property of all, 
and there was no remedy. Fear had held the common 
people in a degraded position, but they feared no longer. 



276 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

Those who had lorded it over the poor instead of labor- 
ing to elevate their condition, were now to suffer the con- 
sequences of that neglect. 

It is a thankless task to labor for the elevation of the 
degraded, and oftentimes we are stung with the ingrati- 
tude of those whom we have desired to aid. But God, 
who has enjoined this unpleasant duty upon us, has 
borne our daily ingratitude without casting us off, and 
we but imitate him when we continue to minister to the 
ungrateful, and the unthankful, and even the unmerciful. 
The people of Mexico had shown more liberality, and 
given more than we. But they had not given it to edu- 
cate and to elevate the condition of the poor, but to feed 
pampered priests, "who walked in long robes, and who 
loved salutations in the markets," and to women like 
them, who had placed themselves in an unnatural re- 
lation to the world. God requires of all men not only 
contributions of money, for that is but half charity, but 
personal services in discharge of the duties of good citi- 
zens, and in relieving the afflicted; and he that disre- 
gards such duties may suffer as the Mexicans did in the 
night of the Acordada insurrection, which turned young 
hairs gray, and destroyed forever the happiness of un- 
numbered families. 

When the common people, brutalized by oppression, 
found themselves masters of the city, and their oppress- 
ors powerless, then burst forth the pent-up hatred of ten 
generations. "They call us leperos and dogs," said 
some of them ; "let us play the part of dogs — hungry 
dogs, among these spotted sheep." The palaces of the 
great were no protection against these infuriated peons, 
and women who boasted of titles of nobility were not 
safe. The wealth that generations of unjust monopo- 
lists had accumulated was scattered to the winds. Le- 
per os now rioted on carpets from Brussels and on cush- 



THE PARIAN. 277 

ions of Oriental stuffs, and quaffed the choice wines of 
Madeira and Champagne. In the fury of their intoxication 
they lost all restraint, and indulged in every excess and 
enormity. Robbery and murder were the order of the 
day. In carrying away the plunder, disputes arose, and 
then they murdered each other as readily as they had 
murdered those who claimed the title of citizens. Fear 
was the only authority they had learned to respect, and 
they knew no other government than the hated police ; 
but now, when the police were powerless, they could 
amuse themselves according to the instincts of their 
brutish natures. They had never been taught self-con- 
trol, and animal indulgence was the utmost of their am- 
bition, and they found amusement in violating all laws, 
human and divine. The murders, the ravishings, the 
wanton destruction of the richest household stuffs, and 
luxuries, and works of art in that night, can not all be 
written, nor can they ever be effaced from the memory 
of those who witnessed them. 

Stretching across the Grand Plaza, opposite the Cathe- 
dral and in front of the buildings of the Municipality, 
once stood the noted mart of commerce called the Parian, 
an ill-looking structure, in which was accumulated the 
mass of foreign merchandise. In this same pile of build- 
ings had been concocted the conspiracy which, in the 
year 1808, had caused the seizure of the Vice-king, Itur- 
rigaray, and his imprisonment in the Inquisition. The 
complaint against the Vice-king was that he was about 
to recognize the political equality of the native-born pop- 
ulation with the emigrants from Spain. For this of- 
fense, his reputation and that of his kindred was to be 
forever blackened by a suspicion of heresy. 

In the night of the Acordada insurrection, the Spanish 
shop-keepers of the Parian found themselves utterly de- 
fenseless. They could no longer invoke the aid of the 
Inquisition in oppressing and trampling on the people, 



278 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

whom their wantonness, and the wantonness of others 
like them, had brutalized. The neglect and oppression 
which had reduced a laboring man to a lejpero had not 
made him insensible to the unequal laws which elevated 
above him a race of beings destitute of that manly cour- 
age which oftentimes gives plausibility to oppression- 
Now the lepero took delight in visiting upon the present 
occupants of this building a fearful punishment for the 
crime committed there twenty years before, and among 
the guilty crowd there was to be found many an innocent 
sufferer. 

The isolated crowds that had been traversing the 
streets, and indulging their wantonness on a small scale, 
at length, as the night wore away, began to concentrate 
around the Parian, and quickly such devastation of 
property was made as might be expected where the rich 
and poor had no common interest in its preservation, 
and where criminal and poor man were almost convert- 
ible terms. The plunderers had little idea of the value 
or uses of the property they were scattering to the winds ; 
and while they wasted millions worth of property, they 
wantonly shed the blood of the proprietors in the midst 
of their merchandise. Nor did the evil end when day- 
light appeared ; for among the consequences of this night 
insurrection was the transfer of all authority to new 
hands. Those who the day before had been stigmatized 
with the impurity of their blood, were now the govern- 
ing power, who, under the forms of law, were to carry 
into effect the behest of the successful insurgents. Nei- 
ther the sight of the ruins of the night before, nor bales 
of merchandise strewed about among corpses and spat- 
tered with blood, could move the new masters of the city 
to pity the fallen condition of a class of men who had 
proved themselves too cowardly to defend their own 
usurpations, and too tyrannical to instill into the lately 
proscribed races any ideas of compassion. 



THE OVEKTUKN. 279 

For three hundred years pure white blood and Span- 
ish birth was an indispensable qualification for promo- 
tion in the vice-kingdom, and the slightest tincture of 
colored blood was an indelible disgrace. But one night 
of tumult and rapine changed the popular standard of 
color. And he who had boasted the day before of his 
pure white blood and Spanish origin, now sought to hide 
himself from the officers of the law, who visited with the 
penalty of banishment the crime of having been born in 
Spain. Men now, for the first time, boasted of their In- 
dian origin, and of the slight infusion they were able to 
discover of colored blood in their veins ; while a man of 
Indian descent, and who spoke a provincial dialect, was 
declared elected President of the Republic of Mexico : 
so uncertain are all divisions of rank formed on the ar- 
bitrary distinction of color. 

During the night strange murmurings were heard 
against "the accursed enslaver of their race." The de- 
scendants of Cortez were fearful for the safety of his 
ashes, which had lain quietly in the convent of San Fran- 
cisco*so long as the Inquisition possessed the power of 
compelling men to reverence his memory as the cham- 
pion of the Cross, the favorite of the Virgin Mary, the 
hero of a holy war against the infidels. But now that 
this accursed institution, and the infamous gang connect- 
ed with its management, had become powerless, the na- 
tional feeling began to manifest itself so openly that the 
remains were removed secretly and by night to the sanc- 
tuary of the most sacred shrine of Mexico, that of Santa 
Teresa, where they remained until a safe opportunity 
presented itself for shipping them off to the Duke of 
Montebello, a Sicilian nobleman, who inherits the titles 
and also the vast estates of Cortez in the valleys of the 
Cuarnavaca and Oajaca, upon which none of the revolu- 
tionary governments have laid violent hands. 

* For a more authentic account, see Appendix E. 



CHAPTER XXV. 

The Priests gainers by the Independence. — Improved Condition of the 
Peons. — Mexican Mechanics. — The Oppression they suffer. — Low- 
state of the Mechanic Arts. — The Story of the Portress. — Charity 
of the Poor. — The Whites not superior to Meztizos. — License and 
Woman's Rights at Mexico. — The probable Future of Mexico. — Mor- 
monism impending over Mexico. — Mormonism and Mohammedan- 
ism. 

The clergy and the other white fomenters of the sep- 
aration from Spain never contemplated the formation of 
a republic, or the arming of the leperos. They were 
alarmed at the bold reforms of the liberal Cortes of Spain, 
and trembled at the prospect of losing their privileges 
and monopolies. They judged that the safest course 
for them was the establishment of an empire upon the 
subversion of the vice-kingdom, which would be so weak 
a power that they could overawe it. The priests rea- 
soned correctly, and have augmented their privileges and 
their wealth, as we shall presently see. The Spanish 
monopolists were ruined by the Revolution, as we have 
seen in the last chapter. But the common people were 
the gainers ultimately by the expulsion of the Spaniards, 
though the whole country suffered for a time by the 
withdrawal of the capital of the Spaniards. The benefit 
derived by the peons from this revolution was the polit- 
ical importance which it gave them. The Parian and 
the lepero perished together. The latter ceased to exist 
when the last stone of the former disappeared. The 
Spaniards had been banished from the country long before 
the authorities undertook the removal of this obnoxious 
edifice, and those who wished to avoid a like fate sought 



MEXICAN MECHANICS. 281 

security in acts of benevolence ; so that at Mexico char- 
itable institutions are now so well conducted, that it is 
one of the few Catholic cities in the world that can boast 
of being free entirely from beggars. Political power gave 
to the common people an importance in the social scale 
which they had never before enjoyed. With the cheap- 
ness of clothing the unclad multitude have disappeared, 
and the new generation find more employment and bet- 
ter wages than their ancestors did, when all branches of 
industry were clogged with monopolies, and they are, 
consequently, more industrious and temperate. 

Still, the Mexican jpeon is immensely below the Amer- 
ican laborer, and still has to be watched as a thief, for 
the want of a little morality intermixed with his relig- 
ious instruction. It is a degrading sight to stand at the 
door of one of the large coach manufactories at Mexico, 
and to witness th ■„ manner in which they search them, 
one by one, as they come out. The natives, who have 
learned the most difficult parts of coach-building from 
English and French employers, can not for a moment be 
trusted, lest they should steal their tools or the materials 
upon which they are employed. I saw even the man 
who was placing the gorgeous trimmings on the Nun- 
cio's coach carefully searched, lest he should have con- 
cealed about his person a scrap of the valuable material. 
That they are thieves is not to be wondered at when 
thek catechism teaches them " that a theft that does not 
exceed a certain amount is not a grave offense."* 



* Having lost my memorandum, I am uncertain whether the number 
of days was one or more, and whether the number of francs named was 
six or eight. The following is my best recollection of the question and 
answer on theft : 

U Q. Is theft a grave offense? 

"A. A theft that does not exceed in value a day's labor is not a 
grave offense ; some theologians contend that a theft that does not ex- 
ceed six francs is not a grave offense." 



282 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

With us, a mechanic is associated with the idea of a 
person occupying a respectable position in life; but at 
Mexico he still belongs to a degraded class, as men are 
there esteemed ; he is &j?eon, on a footing with a com- 
mon laborer. The highest wages are three shillings a 
day, while at least two days in the week he is kept from 
his usual employment by "days of obligation," that is, 
festival days on which it is unlawful to work. Tortil- 
las, Indian griddle-cakes, with black beans (firijoles) and 
red peppers (chilie), are his daily food ; and his lodgings 
are a palm-leaf mat upon a stone or earthen floor, while 
his serapa does duty for a blanket at night. The greasy 
friar does not forget him as he goes his rounds in search 
of Peter's pence ; and the priest sets before him the hor- 
rid consequences of entering Purgatory without first dis- 
charging the debt he still owes for his baptism. He and 
his "wife" still remain unmarried; for how can they 
ever raise the money to pay the priest? And if by 
chance he gets involved in debt, or for the debt of one of 
his kindred, one third part of his daily labor is embar- 
goed by the creditor. 

When the Mexican mechanic has a small kit of un- 
couth tools, he works upon his own account, but at the 
smallest possible profit. When he has finished a pair 
of shoes, if he be a shoemaker, he or his wife starts out 
to dispose of them to some passer-by in the street before 
a new pair is undertaken. When the tinman has finish- 
ed a sprinkling pot, he or his boy walks the street till it 
is sold, and then perhaps a tin bath is made ; and if, 
luckily, from a chance customer he has obtained an extra 
price, a fiesta is proclaimed to the family connection, and 
maybe the additional luxury of buying a ticket in the lot- 
tery of the Virgin of Guadalupe is indulged in, and a vow 
is made that if he wins a prize, one half of the profits of 
the stake shall be deposited as a gift at her shrine. In 



LOW STATE OF MECHANIC ARTS. 285 

this way a week is passed, and it is terminated with the 
entire exhaustion of the little fortune of the poor me- 
chanic. The kindred have had a time ; pulque and li- 
quor have been passed around freely ; the women have 
enjoyed " equal rights" with the men ; they have drunk 
their full share, and smoked their little cigars. The tin- 
man, once more penniless, with an aching head, but with 
a light heart, returns to his little hammer, and a piece of 
solder and tin got on the pledge of his future earnings. 
Such is the condition of native Mexican mechanics, and 
of the mechanic arts at the capital. 

The complicated machinery by which our shoes are 
made, or the equally complicated machinery by which 
tin is worked up into culinary vessels, never entered into 
the dreams of a Mexican mechanic. No Mexican man 
of science ever thought of degrading himself so low as 
to undertake the improvement of the mechanic arts ; 
yet it is astonishing to see what Mexican mechanics do 
accomplish with their imperfect means. I have often 
stopped to witness the success of a poor old man build- 
ing a piano, which was both skillfully arranged and 
well-toned, and yet the tools employed were apparently 
inadequate for such a purpose. In the same primitive 
style were coaches built before foreigners came and sub- 
stituted coaches of modern pattern instead of the old, egg- 
formed coach-bodies of the vice-kingdom. 

It may seem like trifling to be dwelling thus upon the 
character of the substratum of Mexican society, but it 
is from this very substratum that the wealth or poverty 
of a nation is to be traced. The sense of the dignity of 
labor is the foundation of American prosperity, while 
the degradation of the mechanics and laboring class of 
Mexicans is the cause of the national imbecility. 

Let us look at the common people of Mexico from an- 
other point of view. I will reproduce in substance the 



286 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

tale of the old Meztizo woman, who opens and shuts the 
great street door to all well-known inmates, by day and 
by night, and to such others as can give satisfactory an- 
swers. She is esteemed a lucky woman because she 
has the use of a small room on the ground floor for her 
services, where she and a number of her relatives are 
often hived together. Her story is very likely not true 
in every particular, for it can not be denied that she, 
like all of her class, does not consider falsehood per se 
as any other than a venial sin. How should she, con- 
sidering the teaching she receives ?* But the story is 
nevertheless, in the main, a pretty fair picture of the life 
of the humbler classes in republican Mexico. 

She will tell you how her husband basely left her with 
a family of children, and took to another woman, because 
they were not able to pay the priest to get legally mar- 
ried. Her eldest son was seized and taken to the wars, 
where he was compelled to stand up to shoot and be 
shot at, to settle the question which of two sets of white 
men should enjoy the right of plundering the people. 
Whether he should hereafter be discharged honorably, 
or run away, or be killed in battle, it was the same to 
her, for the man that recruited the soldiers would know 
that he had once been a soldier, and would be sure to 
seize him first when ordered to furnish recruits ; and, let 
what will be the course of political events, he is certain- 
ly lost to her forever. 

Her eldest daughter had been a help to her. She 
ground corn for the tortillas, and could guard the house 
door while the old woman went to the public wash-house 
to wash a few shirts which gentlemen had occasionally 

* I again quote the Catechism from recollection. 
" Q. What is a venial sin ? 

"A. A lie that does not destroy charity among neighbors is a venial 
sin." 



THE STORY OF THE PORTRESS. 287 

intrusted to her care. But a chance shot in one of the 
street battles had hit her, and she too was gone. Her 
second son had stopped too long in front of the pulque- 
shop after his day's work was finished, and was involved 
in a street affray, in which knives were drawn, and a man 
killed. Whether he was the guilty one or not, it mat- 
tered little, as he was the first to fall into the hands of 
the officers. For a long time he had been kept in the 
chain-gang, but lately he had been sent to the silver 
mines, where he would probably end his days carrying 
ore on his back like a beast of burden, a thousand feet 
under ground. 

She had a second daughter, old enough to carry food 
to her son while he was in prison, and to lighten his 
misery by a daily visit while he belonged to the chain- 
gang. But since he has been taken from the city, they 
two are left alone in the world. She has now no money, 
or she would get her daughter married, as the priest 
would trust her if she would only pay a small part of 
the fee. Still she is considered fortunate ; for, having 
the reputation of an honest women, she has got a por- 
tress's situation, and little means are thrown in her way 
by which she obtains a comfortable living. But her 
relatives, who are poorer than herself, sympathize with 
her, and come and eat up her tortillas. 

Such is the substance of many a tale of misery, if you 
will stop and listen to the pictures which the lowly draw 
of their condition in any of the Mexican cities. Often 
they are fabricated, but very often they are true. The 
old woman who tells you a tale to excite your sympa- 
thies has perhaps only borrowed a tale of misfortune 
which she has heard her neighbor tell. Those who re- 
proach these poor unfortunates with being beggars, 
thieves, and liars, forget that they have been made such 
by oppression. The greatest amount of suffering caused 



288 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

by the civil wars falls upon the poor; and among the 
suffering poor, the women are the greatest sufferers. If 
they are more intemperate than the men, it is their mis- 
fortunes, too often, that have driven them to seek a tem- 
porary solace in pulque. The slight hold they have on 
their husbands is the cause of their jealousy, and if they 
take part in bloody affrays, it is because they are under 
the influence of intoxication, and not from any inherent 
inclination to cruelty. 

Never did a white skin cover a kinder heart than that 
of the poor Meztizo women of Spanish America. Their 
primitive hut by the wayside is as much at your service 
as your own castle, and you are heartily welcome to their 
humble fare. I never was so unfortunate as to need 
their assistance, but I have often been astonished at the 
ready charity of the poor to those poorer than them- 
selves. I once encountered an Irishman who had begged 
his way from the Gulf coast almost to the Pacific, and I 
was greatly surprised at the cheerfulness with which a 
poor widow woman, keeper of a venta, accepted of a 
blessing instead of more tangible coin for a night's en- 
tertainment. In delicate health always, and not with- 
out a full share of experience among strangers, I know 
full well how to appreciate the kind offices which a wom- 
an only can render. When death stared me in the face, 
and she could do nothing for a perishing heretic except 
to solicit a passing procession to chant a misericordia 
por un infirmo A?nericano, that kindly office was not 
wanting. When, with returning health, I ventured out 
into the street, leaning upon a staff, a poor Indian wom- 
an, forgetting her native shyness, begged me to sit down 
under the shade of her roof while she prepared for me a 
little orange-water, and when, a little refreshed by her 
orange-water, I tottered on, I shall never forget the look 
of sympathy which she bestowed upon an unknown 



woman's EIGHTS AT MEXICO. 289 

stranger. An Indian woman is always kind, "but the 
kindest of her race is the poor despised Indian woman 
of Spanish America. 

It is too common to look down coldly, and not unfre- 
quently with contempt, upon those who occupy the hum- 
bler walks of life, and to speak only of their vices. The 
peon has his vices, and they are glaring enough, but he 
is certainly not worse than his white neighbor. I had 
been so long in California, and had seen so many exhi- 
bitions of courage in street-fights and personal encoun- 
ters, that I had come almost to consider the words white 
man and brave man as synonymous. But when I found 
myself in Mexico at the breaking out of a civil war, I 
soon learned that white men are not always brave, and 
that they were superior to the Indian in little else ex- 
cept in the gilding with which they covered their vicious 
and corrupt lives. They borrow their customs from 
Paris and their style of living, but their morals are even 
below the Paris standard of virtue. 

The law, which sinks the civil existence of the wife 
in the husband, and which charges the husband with lia- 
bility for the debts and trespasses of the wife, is some- 
times stigmatized as harsh, unnatural, and tyrannical. 
If those that consider it so could for a little while enjoy 
the matrimonial freedom of Mexico, they would soon 
discover abundant reason for praising the wisdom of our 
ancestors in hedging about with so many disabilities an 
institution which is both the safeguard of public mo- 
rality and of our free government. Family government, 
self-government, and political freedom dwell together ; 
while despotism and family license are inseparable. At 
Mexico, old family relations are not broken up by new 
marriages. Household family worship is unknown, but, 
like so many pagans, each one trudges off to say her 
prayers separately, and at a favorite shrine. The wife 

N 



290 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

has her separate property and interests, which she man- 
ages with the aid of her "next friend." The husband, 

o m 

too, has his separate interests, and too often his "next 
friend" is his neighbor's wife. 

After my return from Mexico, I heard a woman in a 
public assembly advocating, as social reforms, the insti- 
tutions of a country in a state of moral and political de- 
composition. I felt like exclaiming, " Cursed be that 
woman who would introduce into our happy country the 
social customs of paganism ; and cursed be that people 
who listen to her infidelity!" May a like evil fall upon 
those legislative tinkers who have deprived the husband 
of the power of creating a trust for the protection and 
support of his wife in time of necessity. 

We have examined sufficiently the social condition of 
Mexico to show that there is no natural sympathy be- 
tween the whites and the colored races, or the governing 
and governed races of Mexico. For a brief period, 
indeed, Guerrero, a man of Indian descent, occupied 
the presidency ; but he was deposed and murdered, and 
the government has ever since been in the hands of the 
whites. The present Pinto war in the southwest looks 
toward again reviving the Indian rule. It is carried on 
too languidly to promise success, as there seems to be 
no one in the movement possessed of the energy of that 
Indian drummer, Carrera, who usurped the supreme pow- 
er in Guatemala. On the other hand, Mexico is like a 
ripe pear, ready to fall into the lap of any unscrupulous 
adventurer who chooses to make common plunder of its 
churches, its church jewels, and the inordinate private 
fortunes of its priesthood and nobility. 

There is a rising cloud that is gathering blackness in 
the northwest, and must sooner or later precipitate itself, 
and with the force of a tempest sweep away — to use the 
words of General Tornel — in one mighty flood " the re- 
ligion, language, and national existence of the Me 



XI- 



MORMONISM AND MOHAMMEDANISM. 291 

cans." This is Mormonism. I have watched this de- 
lusion from its rise, near my own residence in Western 
New York, and followed its advancing progress, until, 
from a little rill, it has become a mighty torrent — a polit- 
ical element so potent that its existence in the United 
States is now scarcely tolerable. Where can it go ex- 
cept it precipitate itself upon the territories of imbecile 
Mexico ? To such a sect of fanatics Mexico can present 
no opposition. It must surrender to Brigham Young 
and to his followers their wealth, their images, their 
wives and their daughters, as the Aztecs surrendered all 
to Cortez. 

I have often traced the close analogy between the rise 
of Mormonism and that of Mohammedanism, as well as 
the striking similarity that exists between these two 
systems of false religion. Each one is founded, after a 
fashion, on the Bible, to which each has supplemented a 
volume of miserable fables, the one called the Book of 
Mormon, and the other the Koran. Each has a spuri- 
ous prophet, who is exalted above the prophets of Scrip- 
ture. Both systems permit polygamy, and both are most 
ultra-Protestant in relation to the forms and ceremonies, 
images and pictures of the Oriental and Latin churches. 
And as God sent the great Mohammedan imposture to 
punish the corrupt Christianity of a former age, so in like 
manner He may soon commission Mormonism to wipe 
out of existence the corrupt Christianity of Mexico. 
Mormonism has not yet developed a military character, 
because it would be madness to raise an arm against the 
United States. But when it shall have once passed the 
frontier and entered the dominions of a feeble state, then 
we shall see how keen an edge fanaticism can give to 
the sword in the hands of men naturally courageous, 
when the double motive is held out of a new supply of 
wives, and the inexhaustible treasures of the churches 
to stimulate their fanaticism. 



CHAPTER XXYI. 

The Plaza of the Inquisition. — The two Modes of human Sacrifice, the 
Aztec and the Spanish. — Threefold Power of the Inquisition. — Visit 
to the House of the Inquisition. — The Prison and Place of Torture. 
— The Story of William Lamport. — The little and the big Auto da 
Fe. — The Inquisition the real Goverment. — Ruin of Spanish Nation- 
ality. — The political Uses of the Inquisition. — Political Causes of 
the Bigotry of Philip II. — His eldest Son dies mysteriously. — The 
Dominion of Priests continues till the Prench Invasion. 

The Plazuelo or Plazuelito, the "Little Plaza" of the 
Inquisition, is now, as it ever has been, a market-place 
— the Smithfield of Mexico. On Sundays and all other 
market-days, there is here an abundant supply of flow- 
ers, meats, and vegetables. On great holidays, in the 
times of the vice-kings, the scene was changed. Fruits 
and vegetables were, for the time, placed in the back- 
ground, and an act of" faith" {auto dafe), or burning of 
heretics, was offered as a public spectacle. The grand- 
est of all the bull-fights of Mexico was nothing in com- 
parison with this vice-regal exhibition. As among the 
Aztecs and the pagan Romans, the sacrificial victims 
were kept in reserve for important occasions, and for oc- 
casions when a bull-fight would have been a most inad- 
equate exhibition. The consecration of a new archbish- 
op, or the arrival of a new Vice-king from Spain, or the 
marriage of a member of the royal family, or some sim- 
ilar important political or religious event, could only call 
forth this extraordinary show of roasting men alive. 

If we are to believe the statements of Cortez and Ber- 
nal Diaz,* the Aztecs were accustomed to offer human 

* The defense of the invasion of Mexico by Cortez in time of peace, 
and reducing the Aztecs to slavery, rests on the ground that the Aztecs 
were monsters. 



AN AUTO DA FE. 293 

sacrifices on festival days upon a large circular stone still 
preserved. With an obsidian knife, life was instantly 
extinguished by opening the heart-case and taking out 
the heart, which was offered to their god of war. This 
horrid worship, if indeed it ever existed, was suppressed, 
and one more horrid and cold-blooded in its atrocities 
substituted. There was seldom wanting a victim on 
those great occasions, for prisoners who would otherwise 
have been let off with confiscation of estates and a long 
imprisonment were now doomed to the flames, to accom- 
plish the double purpose of a spectacle and strike terror 
into the ranks of the higher classes, who too often fur- 
nished the victims. But the higher classes were all pres- 
ent. Suspicion might attach to their absence. And he 
that dared not breathe aloud in his own bed-chamber, or 
tell the whole truth at the confessional, from apprehen- 
sion of an inquisitorial spy, took good heed that no act 
or look of his on the day of the great fiesta should be- 
tray him to this secret, but every where present tribunal, 
lest he himself should be the sacrificial victim at the 
next entertainment. 

The roasting of a human victim at the auto da fe was 
a purely democratic institution. The leperos, who were 
beneath the jurisdiction of the Inquisition, felt none of 
the terrors that haunted the rich even in night visions. 
Without the least apprehension, they enjoyed the mag- 
nificence of the spectacle, and their hatred toward the 
high-born was gratified by the sight of one, and some- 
times many, respectable persons burned in the fire for 
their entertainment. They were always ready to mani- 
fest their gratitude to the holy office by assailing and 
perhaps murdering any one who had incurrred the dis- 
pleasure of the priests, but whom it was not politic to 
arrest. Thus, by a threefold power, did the Inquisition 



294 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

enforce the discipline of the Church : by the authority 
of the king and the law, the dread which it inspired ; the 
sympathies of a rabble, whom it was their interest to 
keep brutalized ; and the religious sentiment of the na- 
tion, so far as there was any. But this last was a very 
uncertain reliance, for the same law which makes heresy 
a crime, legalizes hypocrisy, and the inquisitor cared 
very little for the thoughts of men so long as they re- 
main unuttered ; and as no two men think alike, the 
crime of heresy appears to consist in expressing too 
frankly the logical deductions of the understanding upon 
the all-important subject of religion. To speak disre- 
spectfully of the holy office, the Inquisition, was the 
worst of heresy. 

The north front of the Plazuelo of the Inquisition, 
now generally called the Plaza of the Dominicans, is oc- 
cupied by the great yard of the Dominican convent, 
which is separated by a high wall from the Plaza, and 
by a street from the buildings of the Inquisition. With- 
in this yard there is a large flagstone, with a hole in its 
centre, which stone, on days of the auto da fe, used to 
be brought out into the Plaza, and, with iron post, neck- 
ring, and chain attached, constituted the simple appara- 
tus for the human sacrifice. The Dominican fathers 
have carefully laid aside the iron post, with its ring and 
chain, and perhaps, with them, the most valuable of the 
instruments of torture, which were removed from the In- 
quisition building. As there are two classes of bull- 
fights, the ordinary and the grand bull-fight, so there 
was the ordinary auto da fe, performed in this Little 
Plaza, and the grand act of faith, auto da fe general, 
which ordinarily ought to come off in the Grand Plaza 
of the city, in front of the vice-regal palace. 
. Seeing the great door open as I was passing, I ven- 
tured to enter the central court of the Inquisition, from 



THE HALLS OF THE INQUISITION. 295 

which the halls of the different tribunals and the cham- 
bers of the inquisitors and officials were entered and 
lighted. All had now been thoroughly whitewashed and 
renovated, and bore no marks of the fearful scenes that 
had been here enacted. When I stood in the hall where 
its judgments used to be delivered, I had to tax my 
memory of books to draw a picture of events that here 
daily transpired in times past. I saw no Bridge of Sighs, 
yet the whole institution was founded upon the sighs, 
and groans, and riven hearts of its victims, of many of 
whom the world was not worthy. The rich were the 
most profitable game, but a beautiful woman was the 
most acceptable spectacle to a populace debased from 
infancy by attendance on bull-fights. A foreigner that 
had been by special grace licensed to visit Mexico, was 
considered a fortunate prize, for to offer a foreigner as a 
human sacrifice was in accordance with the ancient cus- 
tom of the Aztecs. There was only one foreigner who 
amassed great wealth, and that was Laborde the miner, 
who bought his peace by building the Cathedral of To- 
luca. 

There was nothing to interest a stranger in the empty 
halls where once these legalized murderers had held 
their nightly meetings, and I wandered away toward the 
prison and the place of torture, where, inch by inch, the 
life had been torn from the victims of priestly vengeance. 
I shuddered as I entered the prison door-way, though 
fifty years had passed since the last and most distin- 
guished of its victims had entered here, the Vice-king 
Iturrigaray. Here, too, the hand of the white-washer 
had been busy, and the cells were now made comfort- 
able rooms for the soldiery. The instruments of tor- 
ture were all carefully removed from the place of torture, 
and the room bore no marks of the shocking scenes which 
had here so often transpired. Here poor Eame, the 



296 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

Frenchman, had dragged out his long imprisonment, and 
here William Lamport, the unfortunate Irish victim, pre- 
pared himself for death. But Lamport's story is worth 
giving in full, to illustrate the scenes. 

William Lamport was an Irishman by birth, and 
must have been a Homan Catholic, or he could not have 
obtained a license to visit Mexico. He was probably 
one of that large class of Irish Catholics who erhigrated 
to Spain in order to enjoy their religion more freely than 
they could at home, under English oppression. It was 
probably two intercepted letters that cost this Irishman 
his life. His accusation sets forth that he was the au- 
thor of two writings, in one of which " things were said 
against the Holy Office, its erection, style, mode of pro- 
cess, &c, in such a manner that, in the whole of it, not 
a word was to be found that was not deserving of rep- 
rehension, not only as being injurious, but also insulting 
to our holy Catholic faith." The Prosecuting Attorney 
{fiscal) says of the other writing "that it contained de- 
testable bitterness of language, and contumelies so filled 
with poison as to manifest the heretical spirit of the au- 
thor, and his bitter hatred against the Holy Office." Let 
his fate be a warning to all traveling letter-writers who 
are disposed to criticise too severely "the erection and 
style" of a very awkward-looking building, and the mode 
of process therein used in condemning men to the flames. 
Probably, before he got through with his intercourse with 
the Inquisition, he many times wished himself back un- 
der the liberal government of the Anglo-Saxon oppress- 
ors of his country! 

It was a delightful day in the year 1569, when the most 
splendid auto da fie that ever took place in Mexico was 
celebrated upon the occasion of the burning of Lamport. 
A throne had been placed for the Vice-king, and conspic- 
uous seats were prepared for the audiencia. All the offi- 



STORY OF WILLIAM LAMPORT. 297 

cials of the city and of the department were present to 
add importance to the grand performance ("funcion"). 
Not less brilliant was the display which the whole body 
of the priesthood made upon the occasion. The Arch- 
bishop, as spiritual Vice-king, displayed a bearing that 
dazzled the populace, while his attendant clergy, with the 
whole body of the monastic orders, added immensely to 
the grand spectacle. The procession, headed by the 
Grand Inquisitor and his subordinates, was followed by 
the officials and familiars, while the poor Irishman walked 
with his eyes raised to Heaven, for the purpose, said the 
priests, " of seeing if the devil, his familiar, would come to 
his assistance."* The sermon and the ordinary exercises, 
including the oath administered to all the dignitaries 
present to support the Holy Office, were spun out to an 
unusual length, so that it proved to be a protracted meet- 
ing, as well as the greatest festival the Mexicans ever 
witnessed since the time that Montezuma offered human 
sacrifices. But in the midst of the preliminary exercises 
Lamport escaped burning alive, for when his neck had 
been placed in the ring, he let himself fall and broke his 
neck, so that the crowd were compelled indignantly to 
put up with burning of the dead body of a heretic. The 
unbeliever cheated them out of half their expected sport. 
It may look like wandering from the main topic of 
discussion to devote a chapter to an institution which 
has ceased to exist for forty years. But no one can fully 
comprehend the social and political character of the di- 
verse and conflicting nationalities and discordant ele- 
ments that for three hundred years constituted the Span- 
ish empire without fully understanding the character 
and workings of the Inquisition, which, from " the Coun- 
cil of the Supreme" in Spain, extended, with its compli- 

* Though I do not entirely follow Pinhlanch, yet I give him as au- 
thority for this incident. 

N2 



298 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

cated ramifications, through all the provinces, and pene- 
trated every social organization in Europe and America,* 
and even to the most distant East India possessions, bind- 
ing all the several parts together as the nervous system 
does the parts of the human body ; or rather by external 

* Mr. Gayarre, who, under a commission from the State of Louisiana, 
is examining the colonial records at Madrid, has discovered the evi- 
dence of an attempt made to introduce the Inquisition into New Orleans 
even after our people had begun to settle there. This is his statement: 

"It appears," says Gayarre, "that soon after the death of Charles 
III., an attempt was made to introduce the much-dreaded tribunal of 
the Inquisition into the colony. The reverend Capuchin, Antonio de 
Sedella, who had lately arrived in the province, wrote to the Governor 
to inform him that he, the holy father, had been appointed Commissary 
of the Inquisition ; that in a letter of the 5th of December last, from 
the proper authority, this intelligence had been communicated to him, 
and that he had been requested to discharge his functions with the 
most exact fidelity and zeal, and in comformity with the royal will. 
Wherefore, after having made his investigations with the utmost secre- 
sy and precaution, he notified Miro that, in order to cany, as he was 
commanded, his instructions into perfect execution in all their parts, 
he might soon, at some late hour of the night, deem it necessary to re- 
quire some guards to assist him in his operations. 

" Not many hours had elapsed since the reception of this communi- 
cation by the Governor, when night came, and the representative of the 
holy Inquisition was quietly reposing in bed, when he was roused from 
his sleep by a heavy knocking. He started up, and, opening his door, 
saw standing before him an officer and a file of grenadiers. Thinking 
that they had come to obey his commands, in consequence of his letter 
to the Governor, he said, ' My friends, I thank you and his Excellency 
for the readiness of this compliance with my request. But I have now 
no use for your sendees, and you shall be warned in time Avhen you are 
wanted. Retire, then, with the blessing of God.' Great was the stu- 
pefaction of the friar when he was told that he was under arrest. 
' What !' exclaimed he, ' will you dare lay your hands on a Commissary 
of the holy Inquisition ?' ' I dare obey orders,' replied the undaunted 
officer, and the reverend Father Antonio de Sedella was instantly car- 
ried on boai-d of a vessel, which sailed the next day for Cadiz. 

" Rendering an account of this incident to one of the members of the 
cabinet of Madrid, Governor Miro said, in a dispatch, ' the mere name 
of the Inquisition uttered in New Orleans would be sufficient not only 
to check immigration, which is successfully progressing, but would also 
be capable of driving away those who have recently come, and I even 
fear that in spite of my having sent out of the countiy Father Sedella, 
the most fatal consequences may ensue from the mere suspicion of the 
cause of his dismissal.' " 



THE INQUISITION IN SPAIN. 299 

folds, as the anaconda does its victim. The Inquisition 
was emphatically the nervous system of the Spanish 
monarchy. From the time of Philip II. to the last of 
her kings, Spain had but one monarch that could have 
escaped a lunatic asylum on a commission ad inquire?ido, 
and not a single royal family in all that time that had 
not at least one judicially declared idiot in the house- 
hold ; and more than once it was the regular successor to 
the throne. And yet this ingeniously contrived craft of 
priests held all most firmly together, and made it capa- 
ble of resisting every outside pressure until the French 
imperial armies entered Madrid. 

When French gunpowder was applied to the Holy Of- 
fice, the Spanish empire lost its nationality, and its dif- 
ferent parts fell to pieces like a rope of sand, and reveal- 
ed to the world the sad truth that the Spanish race, 
whether in the Peninsula or in the colonies, was now in- 
capable of self-government. The Inquisition had con- 
sumed its powers of vitality. So long accustomed to 
submit to and lean upon despotic authority, its various 
nationalities had lost the power of self-support. Spain, 
from the earliest historical periods, had ever been the 
victim of foreign colonial despotisms or imported ty- 
rants until Philip II. , under whom the Inquisition be- 
coming firmly established, it thenceforward continued a 
Catholic province of the Roman Church, until Rome and 
the Papal Spanish empire fell together by the hands of 
Napoleon. From that time onward, Spain and all her 
former provinces have continued the sport of military in- 
surgents — a melancholy- evidence of the mental, physi- 
cal, and moral ruin that overtakes a country abandoned 
to the despotism of priests. 

Though the origin of the Inquisition of Spain is fa- 
miliar to all, yet few are accustomed to look upon it in 
its political bearings. The "pious" Isabella, or, as she 



300 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

is called by the descendants of the Moriscoes, " Isabella 
the Accursed," is conceded to have been the founder of 
the modern Inquisition, and yet her great piety did not 
prevent her from giving a death-blow to the Fuero of Cas- 
tile, the most liberal government of Europe except that 
of Aragon. The popularity which she acquired by the 
conquest of Granada, the religious furor excited by that 
successful war, and the union with Aragon, enabled her 
to establish the Inquisition. By means of her priests as- 
sociated in its gloomy tribunals she was able to suppress 
popular rights. A shadow of the Fueros of Catalonia, 
Valencia, and Aragon still remained, but she had sapped 
the foundation on which they rested by the establish- 
ment of the Holy Office. Charles V. was sufficiently pow- 
erful to disregard such humble instrumentalities in car- 
rying out any purpose he deemed to be of advantage to 
his states. He was not a bigot by education, and we 
have to look to disappointed ambition as the cause of 
the virulence with which he persecuted the least indica- 
tion of heresy. He had been thwarted in his ambitious 
schemes ; this he attributed to the Reformation, which 
he himself had fostered at its beginning, in order to sow 
discord among the princes of Germany. He had hoped 
that upon their mutual jealousy he might establish des- 
potic authority ; but the treason of Maurice of Saxony 
had subverted his darling scheme at the moment of its 
apparent success, and in disgust he retired from public 
life to spend the remainder of his days in recruiting his 
health and cursing the heretics. 

The Inquisition burned with renewed flames under 
Philip II. from precisely the same cause that had made 
it tolerable to his father. To the troubles caused by 
the Reformation he attributed the election of his uncle 
Maximilian " King of the Romans," and his own conse- 
quent loss of the Germanic empire. But, as a compen- 



PHILIP II. AND THE INQUISITION. 301 

sation for this loss, he had substantially acquired En- 
gland by his marriage with Queen Mary, and had the sat- 
isfaction of having his soldiers mingled with those of En- 
gland in his war against France, and of seeing his own 
Archbishop of Toledo preside in the tribunal that con- 
demned to the flames the Protestant bishops of England. 
The autos dafe of Smithfield were weeding out heresy 
and liberty from England, which he already began to 
look upon as a province of his empire, when his wife 
died, and the avowed heresy of Elizabeth blasted his 
hopes in that quarter. The heretic Prince of Nassau 
had raised insurrection in the Netherlands, which de- 
prived him of Holland. When the French Catholic 
League, which he had so long subsidized, was about to 
declare him, or at least his daughter, sovereign of France, 
the relapsed heretic, Henry IV., blasted this hope by lay- 
ing siege to Paris. On the side of the Catholic states 
of Europe his affairs went on most prosperously. He 
had acquired Portugal, with all her American and East 
India provinces. But in these new acquisitions he was 
not safe from the assaults of the heretics. The Dutch 
robbed him of Brazil, and of the Cape of Good Hope, 
and of the islands of Ceylon and Java in the East In- 
dies. When his missionary emissaries had excited an 
insurrection by which he might have acquired Japan in 
a religious war, the Dutch were there with their ships, 
and, laying them alongside the rebel camp, they cannon- 
aded it, while the imperial army on the land side utterly 
destroyed together emissary priests and rebels, and for- 
ever excluded Spain and her emissaries from the isl- 
ands, and even England after the negotiation of a Span- 
ish marriage. Nor were his treasure-ships safe from 
these audacious Dutch, who prowled about the West In- 
dies and seized his galleons. The ships from Goa, laden 
with the treasures of the East, had to take a circuitous 



302 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

route to avoid the Dutch, who were continually on the 
look-out at the Cape of Good Hope. As if this was not 
enough, the failure of his great armada sent against En- 
gland, and the ravaging of his own coasts by Essex, in- 
creased his hatred against the heretics to something like 
a mania. 

These are sufficient reasons for accounting for the zeal 
of Philip II. on the subject of religion, and his blindness 
to the consequences of thus abandoning his empire and 
his people as common plunder to a merciless horde of 
plunderers, who bound his empire most firmly together, 
but it was in the bands of national ruin. This, too, may 
account for his often-repeated remark that he would not 
shield his own son if he should incur the censure of the 
Inquisition. When his eldest son and heir openly 
avowed his hatred to the Inquisition, we find him dying 
a mysterious death. It has already been remarked that 
there can be no such thing as reliance upon historical 
truth in a country where the Inquisition is in full author- 
ity. But it does not follow from this that we ought to 
adopt the popular surmise that Philip was privy to the 
murder of his son, or even that he was actually murdered. 
It may have been a murder, as the inquisitorial assassins 
were numerous, or it may have been a natural death, as 
represented in books that have been published by per- 
mission of the censors. All that we know is, that his 
death happened advantageously for the continuance of 
the Holy Office. 

Philip III. can hardly be considered an accountable 
being. The same may be said of his son and of his 
son's sons, to say nothing of those heirs to the Spanish 
crown that were legally adjudged idiots. The nominal 
father of Charles III., though he was King of Spain, must 
be considered as not merely bordering on idiocy, but as 
actually a man of unsound mind. Charles III., though 



FATE OF THE INQUISITION. 303 

he had courage to drive from his dominions the Jesuits, 
dared not undertake a reform of the clergy. We may- 
conclude this chapter by saying that the Inquisition had 
its origin in political considerations, or in the revenge- 
ful feelings of really great sovereigns of Spain, and that 
its continuance was owing to the weakness or impotency 
of their successors ; and though it was the terror of all 
classes above the street rabble, it was too powerful to be 
suppressed before the emancipation of the people which 
followed the French invasion. Such is the fate of a race 
over whom priests have once acquired dominion. 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

Miracles and Earthquakes. — The Saints in Times of Ignorance. — The 
Eruption of Jorullo. — The Curse of the Capuchins. — The Conse- 
quences of the Curse. — The unfulfilled Curse. — The Population of 
the Eepublic. — Depopulation from 1810 to 1840. — The Mixture of 
Whites and Indians not prolific. — The pure Indians. — The Mez- 
tizos. — The White Population. — Negroes and Zambos. — The Jew 
and the Law of Generation. — The same Law applies to Cattle. — It 
governs the Generation of Plants. — Intemperance and Generation. 
— Meztizo Plants short-lived. — Mexico can not he resuscitated. — She 
can not recover her Northern Provinces. 

Earthquakes are, and ever have been, very frequent 
through the whole of Mexico. Yet they have never been 
very severe, particularly at the city, as is demonstrated 
by the very existence of a city upon such a mass of soft 
earth as I have shown in a former chapter constitutes 
the foundation of Mexico. A reasonable amount of hard 
shaking would dislocate its muddy basis and engulf the 
city. Now and then some unusually frail structure is 
toppled down, and the church steeples are swayed a lit- 
tle this way or that, but the cement that sustains them 
has heretofore proved sufficiently cohesive to save them 
from being shaken to pieces or tumbled down.* Some 
ten years ago, the convent church, in which was the mi- 
raculous image of our Saviour, was thrown down, and the 
image that had annually poured forth its precious blood 
for the healing of the spiritual and temporal maladies of 

* An attempt was made to explain away the story of Cortez getting 
drowned out at Iztapalapan, a point above the level of the city of Mex- 
ico, by suggesting that perhaps an earthquake may have changed the 
face of the valley. But, unfortunately, Iztapalapan was the southern 
support of the old Indian levee (calzado), built to keep the water off of 
the city of Mexico in seasons of heavy rains. 



IGNORANCE AND MIRACLES. 305 

all pious believers was buried under the ruins. But 
this calamity was only a precursor of a greater miracle ; 
for, on removing the rubbish, the sacred image was found 
intact, and as ready as ever to bleed again to order for 
ready pay. The spiritual interpretation of this astound- 
ing phenomenon was, that the devil, in his malice, had 
attempted, as of old, to crush the miraculous power of 
the Saviour ; and now, again, as upon the high mountain, 
he was foiled, and the flow of blood was not intermitted. 
Miracles have ever been the most fruitful source of 
profit that the Church enjoys, for at the annunciation of 
every new miracle the faithful are quickened to devotion 
and to contributions, which, above all things, is to be de- 
sired by the "impoverished Church" of Mexico.* An 
earthquake is always a windfall or a godsend to the priest- 
hood. An outsider is often surprised at the number of 
miracles that, in old times, were connected with earth- 
quakes. But rarely do we hear of modern miracles. 
The spirit of miracles works only in times of most pro- 
found ignorance ; and experience has convinced the 
Church that the only prospect of the continuation of mi- 
raculous visitations of the holy Apostles and of the Vir- 
gin in Mexico, depends upon the continuation of the peo- 
ple in the most profound ignorance, and in childlike 
obedience to their spiritual superiors. So long as this 
state of things continued, the holy Virgin was ever pres- 
ent among them, performing the most astounding cures, 
and even, upon one occasion, causing the ground to open 
and swallow up the surplus waters of the valley, to the 
relief of the "most devout people of Mexico," besides per- 
forming other astounding miracles, that have been duly 
attested by Pope, prelates, and the Council of Bites. 

* Though the richest ecclesiastical quasi-corporation in the world, 
your ears are constantly saluted with solicitations for contributions to 
the impoverished Church. 



306 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

But now, since the education of the common people has 
been attempted, although on a very limited scale, and 
men are allowed to speak openly, the most holy Virgin 
of Guadalupe has withdrawn her wonder-working power 
from an unbelieving people, while the blind, the halt, the 
lame, the palsied, and the diseased crowd around her 
shrine, not to obtain her healing mercy, but to solicit 
charity. The saints, also, have ceased to stir up the 
elements, so that volcanic fires have ceased throughout 
the whole limits of the republic, and earthquakes have 
almost forgotten to perform their annual duty of shaking 
the earth. 

The last volcanic eruption in Mexico was one of the 
most astounding of which the record has come down to 
us, whether in Mexico or in any other country. Fortu- 
nately, we have reliable evidence in relation to this event, 
for Humboldt not only surveyed the volcano as it ap- 
peared in his day, but, from eye-witnesses of the first 
eruption, learned the incidents that fill out the history, 
and also the miraculous cause which is assigned for this 
mighty convulsion of nature. His story I shall follow 
in preference to the popular tradition of the awful conse- 
quences that succeeded the curse pronounced by two 
Capuchin friars upon the estate of Jorullo. 

Just one hundred years ago, which was fifty years be- 
fore the time of the visit of Humboldt, two Capuchin 
friars came to preach at the estate which occupied the 
beautiful valley of Jorullo. This valley was situated 
between two basaltic ridges, and was watered by two 
small streams of limpid water, the San Pedro and the 
Cuitamba. These small parallel rivers furnished an 
abundant supply of water, which was well employed 
in irrigating flourishing sugar and indigo plantations. 
These Capuchins, not having met with a favorable recep- 
tion at the estate of San Pedro, poured out the most hor- 



ERUPTION OF JORULLO. 307 

rible imprecations against the beautiful and fertile plains, 
foretelling that, as the first consequences of their curse, 
the plantation would be swallowed up by flames rising 
out of the earth, and that afterward the neighboring 
mountains would forever remain covered with snow and 
ice. After denouncing the curse, the two holy men went 
on their way. 

On the night of the 28th and 29th of September, 1759, 
horrible subterraneous noises were heard, which had been 
preceded by slight shocks of an earthquake since the 
June preceding. The affrighted Indians fled to the 
Aquasareo, and soon thereafter a tract of land twelve 
miles square, which now goes by the name of the " evil 
land" (mal pais), rose up in the form of a bladder, and 
boiled, and seethed, and bubbled like a caldron of pud- 
ding, shooting up columns of fire from ten thousand ori- 
fices. Sometimes a number of orifices would unite into 
one vast crater, and vomit forth such a column of fire as 
was never before seen by human eyes since the time 
when "the smoke of the country went up as the smoke 
of a furnace." 

Intelligent witnesses assured Humboldt that flames 
were seen to issue forth, which, from a surface of more 
than a mile square, cast up fragments of burning rock 
to a prodigious height. The two small rivers were 
swallowed up, and their decomposed waters added fuel 
to the flames, which burned for many months with a 
fierceness that is indescribable. 

Such is the origin of the volcano of Jorullo, in the 
State of Michoican, and such is the pretended consequence 
of a curse pronounced by Capuchin monks upon one of 
the most beautiful estates in the country ; and for gen- 
erations since, the dread of incurring the displeasure of 
strolling vagabond monks has rested like a blight upon 
the common people ; and yet this is but one of the 



308 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

thousand ways by which the Mexican priesthood play 
upon the credulity of the ignorant in a country where 
convulsions of nature are matters of almost ordinary oc- 
currence. Every extraordinary event in nature is as- 
cribed to the exercise of supernatural power on the part 
of the clergy or the most holy images of the Church. 

The fires of Jorullo have ceased to burn for half a cen- 
tury. The central crater that was eventually formed, 
and the numerous little orifices of fire, have long since 
become cold, and all the evidences of an active fire have 
passed away. But to this day the Indians watch the 
progress of the cooling process ; as they anticipate that, 
before many years have passed, the unfulfilled portion of 
the curse will be realized, and that those now live who 
will see the surrounding mountains covered by perpet- 
ual snow — an evil which the half-clad Indians of the 
tropics appear to dread more than perpetual fire. 

The last and only enumeration of the inhabitants of 
Mexico or New Spain was made in 1794, by that dis- 
tinguished Vice-king to whom I have so often referred, 
Ravillagigedo. This enumeration gave as the actual 
population 3,865,529, besides the departments of Vera 
Cruz, Guanajuato, and Cohahuila, which were estimated 
to contain 518,000 more, making a sum total of4,412,529. 
Since that time there has been a great deal of extensive 
guessing, until by this simple process the population was 
brought up to 7,661,520, in 1853.* The process by 
which this increase is effected is to add one sixth for 
supposed omissions in the census, and a like number for 
supposed increase in the subsequent fifteen years till 
the breaking out of war, and taking for granted that the 
population has not retrograded during forty-five years 
of intermittent war. Such conclusions are made in vio- 
lation of all the laws of population. 

* Collection de Leyes, p. 184. 



POPULATION " OF MEXICO. 309 

It may not be uninteresting to my readers to run over 
the laws which regulate the decrease of population, al- 
though it is too much our custom to look only at the 
other side of the picture. The social and civil wars of 
Mexico have been of such a character, as we have seen, 
as to warrant the belief that from this cause alone popu- 
lation must have constantly diminished, from their very 
commencement in 1810 until 1840, when matters were 
comparatively resuscitated. The employment for labor 
during the time that the large estates were neglected, 
and while the canals of irrigation and the silver mines 
were in ruins, was of the most limited character ; and 
the very indigent circumstances to which it reduced the 
majority of those who ranked above the leperos must 
also have diminished the population of the republic much 
below that of the vice-kingdom under Ravillagigedo. 

Since 1840, notwithstanding the frequent wars, Mex- 
ico, in favored localities, may have slightly increased in 
population ; but this increase is more than balanced by 
the Indian wars of the northern departments, which have 
depopulated large tracts of country, sometimes extend- 
ing across one tier of states even into the heart of Du- 
rango and Guanajuato ; so that I hazard nothing in af- 
firming that the population of the whole country must 
be less to-day than it was in 1794, notwithstanding that 
Humboldt sets down an estimate of 5,800,000 for the 
year 1803, and 6,500,000 for the year 1808. I might 
go farther, and affirm that the constant insecurity of life 
and property in all but the central parts of the republic 
is such as to keep down the natural increase of a popu- 
lation never prolific, being made up of a combination of 
uncongenial races — whites and Indians, whose intermix- 
ture leads to sterility. 

The census shows two fifths of the population to be 
pure Indians, mostly laborers : this class would have 



310 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

been the one most likely to have increased since the Rev- 
olution, had there remained the same amount of employ- 
ment and wages as formerly. In consequence of the ab- 
olition of monopolies, the articles necessary for the com- 
forts of life became much cheaper and more easy of at- 
tainment to the laboring classes, which would tend to in- 
crease the number of this class. These Indians, more- 
over, had remained to a great extent free from the dele- 
terious intermixture of white blood. But the pure In- 
dian, compared with the pure Caucasian, is a race, under 
the most favorable circumstances, of slow increase. The 
diseases hereditary among the Indians are aggravated by 
promiscuous marriages, so that in California the mission- 
aries used to inquire diligently after a man's family con- 
nections, and compel a convert to marry into his own 
clan, or not marry at all. 

The Meztizos, or mixed races, constitute another two 
fifths of the population. This is a less vigorous race 
than the pure Indian. They are all the children of sin, 
mostly the offspring of illicit intercourse, and are for this 
cause a feebler race than the offspring of the same mix- 
ture where the man was only blessed with a single wife. 
As all marriage of whites with Indians in New Spain 
was unlawful, these Meztizos bore the same relation to 
the law in New Spain which the mulattoes do in our 
Southern States. 

The whites were set down at one million, or about one 
fifth of the whole population, at the most prosperous pe- 
riod of the vice-kingdom. I doubt if they now amount 
to half or even a quarter of that number, and of this pop- 
ulation there is a very vigorous French immigration, now 
amounting to five or six thousand, and about as many 
Germans, a handful of English, and still less Americans. 
The native white population does not possess the physi- 
cal energy requisite for rapid increase. They form no 



KACES IN MEXICO. 311 

portion of the laboring people ; they live in effeminacy, 
and their children are not nursed at the healthy breasts 
of athletic negresses, as are the children of our Southern 
planters, but are suckled by a more enervated race than 
themselves, viz., the Meztizos. The emigration from 
Spain was never an emigration of laboring men. It con- 
sisted almost entirely of priests, stewards, clerks, and 
taskmasters, to whom labor was considered as degrading. 
When the Spaniards lost a monopoly of these employ- 
ments, and sank to the level of the native races, their num- 
bers rapidly declined. The slight foreign immigration 
above mentioned is not one of laborers, for labor is con- 
sidered an unbecoming employment at Mexico for white 
men, but an immigration of tradesmen and shop-keepers, 
who add nothing to the material wealth of the country. 
Of the Mexican Negro race I never knew but two, 
and one of them held the post of captain in the army, 
and the other was the naked alcalde, mentioned in a for- 
mer chapter, who was discharging the functions of "Judge 
of First Instance." The reasons assigned for the disap- 
pearance of this race from Mexico after so large an im- 
portation of slaves as that which took place in the last 
century is the incongeniality of the climate of Mexico, 
particularly of the table-lands, to the negro constitution. 
At the breaking out of the Mexican revolution, almost 
the only negro slaves in the country were in the depart- 
ment of Yera Cruz. The sugar-planters of the hot coun- 
try of the interior, finding it impossible to carry on their 
estates by the use of negro slaves, attempted to reduce 
the mortality among their working people by raising up 
a race of those disgusting-looking beings called Zambos, 
a cross of negroes and Indians ; but it was attended with 
the usual ill success that has followed every attempt to 
cross or intermingle different and distinct races of men, 
animals, or even plants. 



312 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

The advantages arising from transplanting the human 
race, as well as vegetables and plants, are manifestly 
great. But transplanting should never be confounded 
with intermixing races, whether they be human, or of the 
lower animals, or of plants. When God, in his infinite 
wisdom, saw fit to choose out a family that he destined 
to continue for thousands of years, He transplanted it 
into a new soil and climate, and subjected it to divers 
migrations. First it went down into Egypt, and then, 
" with a high hand and an outstretched arm," He brought 
it up out of Egypt, and after a sojourn of forty years in 
the wilderness, He re-established it in the land of Canaan. 
This is the origin of the most perfectly developed race 
of the present time. Whether in the tropics or in the 
most northern latitudes, the Jew is the same intellectual 
and physical man, and carries about with him the indel- 
ible marks of a descendant of those patriarchs who were 
commanded not to intermarry with the people among 
whom they dwelt. The Jew may wander and sojourn 
in strange lands, but he cherishes with national pride 
the blood of Abraham, which he insists still flows in his 
veins, and he is most careful, of all things, to transmit it 
pure to his children. Though Canaan abounded with 
fragments of nationalities, his boast is that his blood is 
not intermixed with any of them. To the history of the 
Jews we might add the experience of the Franciscan 
missionaries of California, that for a healthy offspring a 
man must marry among his own clan. 

The constant complaints we hear of the deterioration 
of imported animals of choice breeds is the result of a 
disregard of this law of propagation. The importations 
of Merino sheep, and afterward of the Saxon, proved a 
failure chiefly from this cause. Those engaged in the 
importation of English cattle begin already to make the 
same complaint, which they would not have done had 



INTERMIXTURE OF RACES. 313 

they taken the precaution to import their foreign stock 
in families. The Mulatto is an apparent, not a real ex- 
ception to the rule. He is superior to the Negro, often 
superior to his white father ; but it is a superiority for a 
generation only, and carries with it the seeds of its own 
dissolution. The mule is superior to the donkey, but 
lasts only for a generation. The Oregon ox, a cross be- 
tween the Spanish and American breeds, is superior to 
either of the pure breeds. But it is the concentration 
in one animal of what might be the material of divers 
generations. 

I once asked a Dutchess county farmer the cause of 
the great superiority of his crops of wheat over those of 
his neighbors, and his reply was that he always brought 
his seed from a distance, changed it often, and took good 
care not to let it intermix with the wheat of that region. 
The same, or, rather, greater resiilts have attended the 
transportation of American seeds and plants to Califor- 
nia, where a new soil and a new climate has produced 
upon all the staples of agriculture such an improvement 
as to astonish men who have made this branch of indus- 
try a study. It is the result of the migration of plants 
where there are no plants of the same character to inter- 
mix, and so deteriorate the race by crossing the breed. 
In trees the same law holds unchangeably. We pro- 
duce fine fruit by inoculation and by grafting ; but ex- 
perience has taught us never to inoculate upon a graft- 
ed stem, but always upon a natural branch. As the 
Conquistadors selected the best-looking Indian women 
for the mothers of the Meztizos, so the fruit-raiser se- 
lects the best natural stems to inoculate with his artifi- 
cial varieties of fruit. In this way we get better fruit 
by exhausting the root, and a whole race of plants are 
sometimes worn out by mixture from too close a prox- 
imity of the different families of the same genus. In 

o 



314 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

the laws which Moses gave to the children of Israel, we 
■find a provision against the evils of intermixtures in the 
precept: "Thy cattle shall not gender with diverse 
kind." "Thou shalt not sow the field with divers 
seeds." In these precepts God has taken care to guard 
the wholesome generation of plants as well as of animals. 

The successful intermingling of the Protestant Anglo- 
Saxon immigration with our own people in the second 
and third generations is not an exception to the law of 
generation, as both are but branches of the same stock, 
and are successfully planted together. Nor is the mor- 
tality which follows the Catholic immigration an excep- 
tion to the beneficial law of migration, for habits of in- 
temperance account for the short lives of these immi- 
grants ; and though their offspring is abundant, yet it is 
all tainted with an inheritance of disease, and too many 
of the children suffer the ruinous consequences of having 
drawn "still slops" from a mother's breast in infancy. 
For physically, and in the chain of generation, most tru- 
ly are the sins of the fathers visited upon the children 
to the third and fourth generation. 

Our collection of material for an argument will be com- 
plete when I have added that the trees most prolific of 
artificial fruit die the earliest, and suffer most from run- 
ning sores ; that the vines cultivated artificially to pro- 
duce the choicest wines suffer most from the mildew, 
and the potatoes of the most artificial varieties are the 
ones that have suffered most from the rot. When the 
cholera first visited Mexico, its passage through the coun- 
try was like the ravages of the Angel of Death among 
the Meztizos and the fragments of decaying races. And 
this progress toward depopulation can not be stayed by 
the infusion of a vigorous stock. The law of sexuality 
in plants leads to the intermarriage of the vigorous with 
the decaying and the intermixture of blossoms ; nor can 



PKOSPECTS OF MEXICO. 315 

human plants long vegetate together without intermar- 
riages, which ingraft the vigorous constitutions with the 
virus of the old and decaying. 

If, then, I have correctly enunciated the law of migra- 
tion of men, animals, and plants, and if the law of inter- 
mixture of distinct races, or distinct species of the race, 
has been truly stated, the important argument to he 
drawn from it, which interests all Americans inquiring 
into the future of Mexico, is, that the present incongru- 
ous fragments of population which the internal disorders 
of Spain have set loose in Mexico can never he transform- 
ed into a homogeneous nationality, nor can sufficiently 
permanent elements of strength be found in this political 
chaos to constitute a permanent government. The de- 
graded condition to which labor is reduced forbids the 
idea of an immigration of foreign laborers, while the mis- 
erable scale of wages — a quarter of a dollar a day upon 
the estates, payable out of the plantation store, or three 
shillings in the towns — holds out no inducement for poor 
men of a healthy race to abandon their own country and 
migrate to Mexico in sufficient numbers to form a sub- 
stratum of society which ultimately might rise into a 
nationality. 

A still more important question is disposed of by the 
facts stated in this chapter, viz., that there is no possi- 
bility of the present inhabitants of Mexico ever success- 
fully driving back the Apaches and reconquering the 
northern provinces. Her title to the wild regions of the 
north, which rests on discovery and colonization, is lost 
by her utter inability to subdue the Indians and to col- 
onize, after a probation of three hundred years. At this 
day the whole of the northern provinces lie, like waifs, 
open to any civilized people to take possession who re- 
quire an additional territory. But nothing is so absurd 
as the American process of acquisition by treaty of ter- 



316 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

ritories which already are, or soon will be, covered all 
over by immense land-claims, in districts subjugated by 
the Indians, instead of acknowledging the title of the 
Apaches to the lands they have conquered from Mexi- 
co, and long held in possession, and purchasing of those 
who are the real sovereigns of Northern Mexico. 




11 / I 






CHAPTER XXYIII. 

The Church of Mexico. — Its present Condition and Power. — The Num- 
ber of the "Eeligios." — The Wealth of the Church.— The Money- 
power of the Church. — The Power of Assassination. — Educating the 
People robs the Priest. — Making and adoring Images. — The Prog- 
ress downward. 

The Catholic Church of Mexico is a peculiar institu- 
tion. Its historical antecedents have been considered in 
previous chapters in connection with other subjects. 
Men no longer whisper their unbelief with trembling, 
nor have they any longer to dread inquisitorial fires if 
they refuse to pay tithes to the bishop, or if they neglect 
to bestow rich gifts upon the priests. Still the Church 
survives the losses of this important engine of piety, and 
continues unmodified by passing events. In the midst 
of revolutions it stands unchanged, a relic of the last 
century. It stands like a great showman's wagon from 
which the horses have been detached, and children, great 
and small, are collected around to look at its images. 
Unfortunately, there is an abundance of full-grown chil- 
dren in a country where, for centuries, a combination of 
spiritual and temporal despotisms have dwarfed the in- 
tellects of men down to the standard of a toy-shop relig- 
ion, which had long rejoiced in crushing the human in- 
tellect, while it disdained to enlighten the humblest un- 
derstanding. 

Mexico is the only Catholic country in which the 
Church has remained unchanged during all the revolu- 
tions of the last half century. The French infidel ar- 
mies, and the wars and revolutions that followed the 



320 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

French invasions, overturned the Church of Spain and 
Italy, so that the Church organization that now exists in 
those peninsulas is a new creation. Not so in Mexico. 
Its revolution was for the purpose of saving the privi- 
leges of the Church from the too sweeping reforms of the 
Cortes of Spain. And there it now stands, with all the 
properties and annuities which it enjoyed in the time of 
the idiot kings. The Inquisition no longer enforces with 
fire the censures of the Church, and men are no longer 
compelled by legal process to pay tithes. But for these 
losses the Church has received a heavy compensation. 
The priests and inquisitors who ruled the childish court 
of Spain would allow no independence to the Mexican 
Church, but supplied, by royal appointment, all the can- 
didates for vacant bishoprics and chapters, while the 
Yice-king was allowed to fill the inferior offices of the 
Church. 

By the partial separation of Church and state which 
took place in 1833, the Church of Mexico became inde- 
pendent of the state. The chapters acquired the right 
of electing their own bishops ; the bishops, by virtue of 
their spiritual authority, appointing the priests and ex- 
ercising control over all Church property as quasi cor- 
porations-sole, at least over all property not vested in 
religious communities, if practically there could be said 
to be any real exception. What that newly-acquired 
power of the Mexican bishops amounts to, we in the 
United States, from our own experience of the same au- 
thority, can judge. 

That the reader may know how extensive is this 
money-power of the bishops, I subjoin an extract from a 
statistical chart* published by Senor Lerdo de Tejado, 

* Grando Sinoptico de la Republica Mejicana en 1850. Por Miguel M. 
Lerdo y Tejado ; approved by the Mexican Society of Geography and 
Statistics. 



STATISTICS OF THE CHUKCH. 321 

First Official de Ministerio de Fomento, the following 
synopsis of the clergy and their incomes : 

"There is one archbishop, the Archbishop of Mexico, 
and eleven bishops, and one to be created at Yera Cruz. 
There are 184 prebends and 1229 parishes. The total 
number of ecclesiastics is 3223.* There are 146 con- 
vents of monks and 59 convents of nuns, and 8 col- 
leges for propagating the faith. The convents of monks 
are inhabited by 1139 persons, and there are 1541 nuns 
in convents, and with them 740 young girls and 870 
servants. There are 238 persons in the colleges for 
propagating the faith." This is less than half the num- 
ber of the religios under the vice-kings, while the riches 
of the Church have immensely increased, as we shall 
presently see. 

I translate from the same author, in a note, statistics 
upon the much-agitated question of the wealth of the 
Church of Mexico,! from which it will be seen that the 

* This number 3223 includes all of the 1139 monks, except the lay 
brothers. The two classes of priests, those who are not monks and 
those who are monks, are distinguished in Catholic countries as secu- 
lars and regulars (clerigos and religios). Humboldt says the Mexican 
clergy are composed of 10,000 individuals (Essai Politique, vol. i. p. 172), 
and, including the nuns, and lay brothers and sisters, he puts the sum 
total of the religious at 14,000. But in a note he gives the numbers in 
five of the principal departments out of twelve, which foot up at only 
5405 for the clergy of both orders. 

f "The general revenue destined for the maintenance of the clergy 
and of religious services in the republic may be divided into four class- 
es : first, tbat which appertains to the bishops and to the canons, who 
form the chapter of the Cathedral ; second, those revenues which apper- 
tain to particular ecclesiastics and chaplaincies; third, those of curates 
and vicars ; fourth, those of divers communities of religios, of both sexes. 

" The first class is principally of tithes and first-fruits, the product 
of which was very considerable in times past, when they included a 
tenth part of all the first fruits which grew upon tbe soil of the repub- 
lic, and the firstlings of the cattle. But lately this revenue has much 
fallen off, since by the law of the 17th of October, 1833, it is no longer 
obligatory upon the cultivators to pay this contribution. Nevertheless, 
there still are many persons who, for conscientious reasons, or for oth- 
er cause, continue to pay this tax, so that it produces a very consider- 



322 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

total amount consumed in the maintenance of these 3223 
persons, is annually $20,000,000, besides the very large 

able sum. This part of the clergy also receive considerable sums which 
have been left by devout persons for the performance of certain annual 
ceremonies called anniversaries. 

"The collegiate church of our Lady of Guadalupe has, in addition 
to a monthly lottery, which operates upon a capital of $13,000, certain 
properties and other capitals of which the government takes no account. 

"Particular ecclesiastics and chaplains are supported on a capital 
generally of $3000, established by certain pious persons for that object, 
besides the alms of the faithful, which are given for a certain number 
of masses to be applied to objects of their devotion. 

"The support of curates consists of parochial rights, viz., fees for 
baptismSj marriages, funerals, responses, and religious celebrations 
(funcions) which, in their respective churches, they command the faith- 
ful to make ; and, finally, by the profits which they derive from the sale 
of novenas, medals, scapularies, ribbons (inadedas), wax, and other ob- 
jects which the parishioners employ. 

" The income of convents of monks, besides the alms which they re- 
ceive for masses, funcions, and funerals, which they celebrate in the con- 
vent churches, consists of the rents of great properties which they have 
accumulated in the course of ages. 

" The convents of nuns are in like manner supported by the income 
of great estates, with the exception of two or three convents which pos- 
sess no property, and whose inmates live on charity. 

" Besides the incomes named, which pertain to the personnel of the 
clergy, there are, in the cathedrals and other parochial [churches], rev- 
enues which arise from some properties and foundations created for at- 
tending to certain dues called "fabrica" which consist of all those ob- 
jects necessary for the services of this worship (culta). 

"From the want of publicity which is generally observed in the man- 
agement of the properties and rents [incomes] of the clergy, it is impos- 
sible to fix exactly the value of one or the other ; but they can be cal- 
culated approximately by taking for the basis those data which are with- 
in the reach of the public, which are the total value of the production 
of the annual return (rnovimiento) of the population for births, marriages, 
deaths, and, finally, the devout practices which are still customary 
among the greater part of the population. Observing carefully these 
data, -I assume, without the fear of committing a great error, that the 
total amount which the clergy to-day realize in the whole extent of the 
republic, for rents, proceeds of tithes, parochial rights, alms, religious 
ceremonies (funcions), and for the sale of divers objects of devotion, 
is between eight and ten millions of dollars. 

" Some writers have estimated the properties belonging to the cler- 
gy at one half of the productive wealth of the nation ; others at one 
third part ; but I can not give much credit to such writers, as they are 
only calculations that rest on no certain data. I am sure that the total 



REVENUE OF THE CHURCH 323 

sums expended in the repairs and ornaments of an enor- 
mous number of churches, and in gifts at the shrines of 
the different images, which can not be appropriated to the 
maintenance of the clergy. This sum of $20,000,000, 
if fairly divided among them, would yield an abundant 
support, though not an extravagant living ; but, unfor- 
tunately, the greatest portion of this immense sum is 
absorbed by the bishops, while the priests of the vil- 
lages contrive to exist by the contributions they wring 
out of the peons. At the time of the census, 1793, the 
twelve bishops had $539,000* appropriated to their sup- 
port ; but now their revenues are so mixed up with the 
revenues of the Church, that it is impossible to say how 
much these twelve successors of the apostles appropriate 
to their own support. 

In place of the Inquisition which the reformed Span- 
ish government took away from the Church of Mexico, 

amount of the property of the clergy, for chaplaincies, foundations, and 
other pious uses, together with rustic and city properties, which belong 
to the divers religious corporations, amount to an enormous sum, not- 
withstanding the falling off that is said to have taken place from the 
amounts of former years. 

"All property in the district of Mexico [federal district] is estimated 
at $50,000,000, the half of which pertains to the clergy. Uniting the 
product of this property to the tithes, parochial rights, etc., I am well 
assured that the total of the income of the clergy amounts to from 
eighteen to twenty millions of dollars." 

* The Archbishop of Mexico $130,000 

Bishop of Pueblo 110,000 

" Valladolid 110,000 

" Guadalajara 90,000 

" Durango 35,000 

" Monterey 30,000 

" Yucatan 20,000 

" Oajaca 18,000 

" Sonora 6,000 

Total individual income of twelve bishops $539,000 

— Essai Politique, vol. i. p. 173. 

The reason why the Bishop of Sonora was limited to $6000 was that 
his diocese was so poor that he had that salary paid out of the king's 
revenue. 



324 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

the Church now wields the power of wealth, almost fab- 
ulous in amount, which is practically in the hands of a 
close corporation-sole. The influence of the Archbishop, 
as the substantial owner of half the property in the city 
of Mexico, gives him a power over his tenants unknown 
under our system of laws. Besides this, a large portion 
of the Church property is in money, and the Archbishop 
is the great loan and trust company of Mexico. Nor is 
this power by any means an insignificant one. A bank- 
rupt government is overawed by it. Jlen of intellect 
are crushed into silence ; and no opposition can success- 
fully stand against the influence of this Church lord, who 
carries in his hands the treasures of heaven, and in his 
money-bags the material that moves the world. To un- 
derstand the full force of his power of money, it must be 
borne in mind that Mexico is a country proverbial for 
recklessness in all conditions of life ; for extravagant liv- 
ing and extravagant equipages ; a country where a man's 
position in society is determined by the state he main- 
tains ; a country, the basis of whose wealth is the mines 
of precious metal ; where princely fortunes are quickly 
acquired and suddenly lost, and where hired labor has 
hardly a cash value. In such a country, the power and 
influence of money has a meaning beyond any idea that 
we can form. Look at a prominent man making an os- 
tentatious display of his devotion : his example is of ad- 
vantage to the Church, and the Church may be of advant- 
age to him, for it has an abundance of money at 6 per 
cent, per annum, while the outside money-lenders charge 
him 2 per cent, per month. The Church, too, may have 
a mortgage upon his house over-due ; and woe betide 
him if he should undertake a crusade against the Church. 
This is a string that the Church can pull upon which is 
strong enough to overawe government itself. 

This money-power of the Church yet lacks complete- 



MONEY-POWER OF THE CHURCH. 325 

ness and concentration to make it even a tolerable sub- 
stitute for the power lost by the abolition of the Inquisi- 
tion, as this wealth is distributed among 12 independent 
bishops. But, having succeeded in establishing the tem- 
poral power of her bishops in Mexico more firmly than 
in the United States, the Papal court made another step 
in advance. In 1852, Mexico was electrified with de- 
light at the condescension of the Holy Father in sending 
a nuncio to that city. For two full years this represent- 
ative of the Holy See was feted and toasted on all hands, 
as little less than the Pope himself, whom he represented. 
But last year all these happy feelings were dashed with 
gall and wormwood by an announcement that as the 
bishops controlled all this immense property by virtue 
of their spiritual authority, there was a resulting trust in 
his favor, or at least in favor of the Pope, whom he rep- 
resented with full powers. It was Pandora's box opened 
in the midst of " a happy family." There was no dis- 
puting the nuncio's law ; but to render to him an ac- 
count of their receipts and disbursements, or to deliver 
over the bonds and mortgages to this agent of the Pope, 
was most unpleasant. The old Archbishop keeps fast 
hold of the money-bags, which, so far, the keys of Saint 
Peter have been unable to unlock. The battle waxes 
loud and fierce between the parties and their parti- 
sans, and Santa Anna stands looking on, dreaming of 
the happy time when, through the internal dissensions of 
the Church, these accumulations of 300 years of robbery 
and false pretenses will fall into the public treasury, and 
the people as well as the- government will obtain their 
enfranchisement. 

The money-power of the Church has proved sufficient- 
ly strong to save it from the hungry maw of a famishing 
government, and to stand unaffected by the revolutions 
that surround it ; and now and then, when too bitterly 



326 MEXICO AND ITS EELIGION. 

assailed by some political reformer, it finds relief in the 
assassination of the assailant, as in the case of the elo- 
quent member of the last Congress, who, after a violent 
philippic against the corruptions of the priests, was found 
murdered in his chamber. And, as in case of the inquis- 
itorial assassinations, the crime was proved to have been 
connected with a robbery. The power to overawe courts 
of justice, proverbially corrupt, and the facilities with 
which assassinations are procured, are now the most 
dreaded weapons of the Church, and may account for the 
nominal conformity of the intelligent classes. 

The unbelievers in Mexico, though considerable in 
numbers, are not organized with a positive creed. Theirs 
is only a negative existence — unbelief; and they are gen- 
erally found conforming outwardly, as a more convenient 
and prudent course than running a tilt with the well- 
organized forces of the Church. 

There is nothing peculiar in the spiritual powers of 
the Church of Mexico, as these powers are common to all 
Catholic countries, and vary only with the ignorance and 
brutality of the people ; the more degraded the people, 
the greater is the power of the priest and bishop. The 
intelligent Catholic, educated among Protestants, looks 
upon his priest as a religious instructor, and interprets 
the ego te absolvo as rather a matter of form, meaning 
little more than that he will intercede for him. He has 
caught and is applying a Protestant idea unwittingly. 
But with the gross multitude who constitute the mass 
of the Spanish-American population, the priest is the 
God of the people ; his giving or withholding absolution 
is a matter of life or death ; and, however corrupt and de- 
bauched he may be, he still holds jurisdiction over the 
pains of hell and the bliss of heaven. For a reasonable 
consideration in money, he will shut up the one and open 
the other. The offering in the mass of the bloodless sacri- 



WOESHIP OF IMAGES. 327 

fice of Jesus Christ, as it is called, is not sufficient for 
the Catholic in a Protestant country, but the priest must 
also preach a sermon every Sabbath, like a Protestant 
minister, though he still holds to the efficacy of the mass 
in conferring blessings on the living and the believing 
dead. The preaching of the priest is a rare thing in an 
exclusively Catholic country. The mass is his liveli- 
hood, and if he be the head of a community, or a popular 
priest, he often makes a profit in taking in masses to say, 
and letting out the job at a discount. The whole mat- 
ter may be summed up by saying that the more pro- 
foundly ignorant the people are, the more devotional do 
they become, so that the priest has always a pecuniary 
interest in the ignorance of the people, and if he makes 
any effort toward their enlightenment, it is an effort 
made directly against his own pecuniary interests and 
the income of his office. 

The most ancient anti-Catholic, I might with propri- 
ety say, Protestant sect, whose form of synagogue wor- 
ship is congregational, and who are republican at heart, 
though too often submitting to a despotism, are the Jews. 
Between these two, the Jew and the Catholic, there ex- 
ists an unmitigated hostility. The Catholic reviles the 
Jew with a sin of which, most likely, his own ancestors 
were not guilty,* and the Jew curses the Nazarene for 
the idolatry of his worshipers. He will make no allow- 
ances for the nice distinction between adoration and wor- 
ship, and insists that the making the likeness of any 
tiling to be set up in a place of worship is idolatry, and 
that the image of the cross is as much an image as the 
image of Him who hung thereon. And in all this the 

* Most of the Jews of our day are the descendants of the Babylonian 
Jews, who did not return to Jerusalem after the Captivity, but remained 
in the province of Babylon until they were driven out, some four hund- 
red or more years after Christ ; the Babylonian, not the Jerusalem 
Talmud, being most commonly in use among them. 



328 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

Jew is right, if we are to obey the commandment of God. 
Yet the Jew forgets that a thousand years of trial were 
requisite to cure his ancestors of their proneness to idols. 
After their first mission, accomplished in the birth of 
Christ, God has preserved them a perpetual witness 
against paganism. But so subtle is this sin, that we find 
ourselves setting up sensuous representations, while we 
point the finger of scorn at the Catholic, who ascribes 
miraculous power to an image of the Virgin. And 
what is the difference, the Almighty himself being judge, 
between setting up a cross in a place of worship or as- 
cribing miraculous power to an image, or, as is the fash- 
ion to say, some spirit acting through the image ? Are 
they not different stages of the same disease, and each 
equally calculated to provoke the Almighty to jealousy. 
Image worship has another curious aspect. It is a 
very tolerable thermometer by which to measure the 
downward progress of nations. Pagan Rome, in times 
of comparative purity, had her laws against idolatry; 
but as her higher classes advanced in refinement and 
sensuality, and the plebeians became debased and bru- 
talized, the whole religious ideas of the nation degenera- 
ted into idolatry, associated with a despotic miracle-work- 
ing priesthood, and soon followed by a political despot- 
ism. It is curious to witness how exactly it takes on 
the same form in different countries in traveling this 
downward road. The Buddhist of China, who has reach- 
ed a thousand-fold lower level than the Catholic, has 
his unmarried priesthood, his monks, and nuns, and self- 
imposed penances, and tortures, and holy water, and a 
ritual in an unknown tongue (Sanscrit), so strikingly 
resembling the Catholic as to suggest the idea of a com- 
mon origin, if such an idea were not impossible. Yet 
in the moral standard they seem to have reached the 
point of total depravity. Hence we might sum up the 



SUMMAEY OF EVILS. 329 

cause that have produced the Mexican of the present day 
by enumerating the absence of the scriptural idea of fam- 
ily relation ; the despotism exercised by the priesthood 
with the aid of an Inquisition, and the unnumbered toll- 
gates they have placed on the road to heaven ; the effem- 
inacy of the higher classes and debasement of the peas- 
antry ; the absorption of half the revenues of the coun- 
try in superstitious and idolatrous purposes, and the un- 
cleanly habits superinduced by mental and physical deg- 
radation for generations, so that the word leper is used 
to designate a poor man in the city where that loathsome 
disease has its victims. 



CHAPTEE XXIX. 

Causes that have diminished the Religios. — The Provincials and Supe- 
riors of Convents. — The perfect Organization. — The Monks. — San 
Franciscans. — Dominicans. — Carmelites. — The well-reputed Orders. 
— The Jesuits. — The Nuns. — How Novices are procured. — Contrast- 
ed with a Quaker Prison. — The poor deluded Nun. — A good old 
Quaker Woman not a Saint. — Protestantism felt in Mexico. 

The monkish orders of Mexico have remained un- 
changed from the time of their first establishment. We 
have seen that they have fallen off immensely in num- 
bers, but have increased immensely in efficiency, by the 
termination of those internal controversies between the 
Spanish-born and Creoles, and by enfranchisement from 
state control. Not only are they now all native-born, 
but the Meztizos seem to be the predominant race in the 
priesthood. The priesthood is not now so inviting an 
employment as it was before the suppression of the In- 
quisition. Miracles have ceased to be a profitable spec- 
ulation, while the revenue once paid to the monks has 
been followed by ill-suppressed contempt. The employ- 
ment once monopolized by the Spaniards being now 
thrown open to general competition, there is less willing- 
ness to submit to the despotism which ever reigns in re- 
ligious houses than there was in the times of the vice- 
kings. Hard fare, cruel treatment, and public contempt 
have diminished the candidates for monastic orders, until 
the old proverb — "He that can not do better, let him 
turn monk" — is not unknown at Mexico. With the in- 
crease of liberty the number of nuns has diminished, as 
violence can no longer be used in getting a girl into a 
convent. For all these reasons the number of the relig- 



THE RELIGIOUS ORDERS. 331 

ios has rapidly diminished, while the wealth and efficien- 
cy of the Church has increased. 

Having spoken of the bishops, the lords spiritual of 
Mexico, and the controlling influence they exercise over 
a feeble government, we come next to the second class 
of spiritual masters of the country — the heads of orders, 
the provincials, and the heads of religious houses. These 
two classes of dignitaries are usually elected for their 
known severity of discipline, either by the procurement 
of the bishop, or through fanaticism of the monks or 
nuns, who, having voluntarily made themselves convicts 
and prisoners for life, now undertake to add to their self- 
afflicted mortification by choosing for their head a supe- 
rior the most hateful of their number. The novice is 
taught that the greatest favor with Heaven is to be ob- 
tained by implicit obedience under most trying circum- 
stances, and the more cruel the despotism they unmur- 
muringly submit to, the greater will be the accumulation 
of good works. But cursed to the lowest depths of Pur- 
gatory is that recluse who dares to murmur even in his 
inmost thoughts ; and if he so far forgets his duty as to 
murmur aloud, then all the powers of the Church are 
brought to crush his insubordination. 

We have thus followed spiritual despotism through its 
various stages, from the Pope to the bishops ; from the 
bishops to the provincials of religious orders ; and then 
down to superiors of a community of half a dozen monks 
or nuns, by whom immorality is pardonable, but who re- 
gard disobedience or insubordination in the slightest par- 
ticular "like the sin of witchcraft and idolatry." Such 
is the perfect organization of the papacy in all its parts, 
which, acting as one great secret, political, social, and re- 
ligious association, labors continually to concentrate the 
riches of the nations at Rome as a common centre. 

There is a peculiar feature in the Catholic Church in 



332 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

Mexico unknown in other Catholic countries : it is the 
preponderance of the regular clergy (monks) over the 
secular clergy. This is owing to Cortez, who wrote to 
the Emperor Charles V. to send him regulars, for the 
conversion of the Indians, instead of seculars, assigning 
as a reason for this request " that the latter display ex- 
travagant luxury, leave great wealth to their natural 
children, and give great scandal to the newly-converted 
Indians." Hence more than one half of the Mexican 
clergy are monks, and wear the cowl ; for at the time of 
the census of 1793, as we have seen, there were in the 
city of Mexico 1646 monks, besides lay brothers, against 
550 secular priests, while in the fifteen convents for nuns 
there were 923 of these female monks. 

The reader has already become quite familiar with the 
Franciscan fathers and their vows of poverty and self- 
mortification, and their skill at playing for gold ounces. 
They have pretty well maintained that reputation since 
the time of Friar Thomas Gage. But there are some 
honorable exceptions to this rule, though few and far be- 
tween. We have already noticed how they were favored 
by Cortez, and the result has been that they are the rich- 
est fraternity in the republic. These holy men of the 
Angelic Order of Saint Francis have lately discovered a 
new source of wealth in renting their large central court 
to a Frenchman, who occupies it with the best garden 
of plants in Mexico ; and as the convent occupies nearly 
a whole square in the central part of the city, they have 
pierced the convent walls, and rented out shops upon the 
business streets, while the soldiers of Santa Anna occu- 
py the vacant cloisters of the convent. In this "happy 
family," with all the immense wealth of the establish- 
ment, the donados, and those monks who are so poor as 
to have no friends, find but a miserable subsistence. 

Of the Dominicans I have already spoken in connec- 



CHARACTER OF THE DIFFERENT ORDERS. 333 

tion with the Inquisition. In their yard is the flag-stone 
which was used by them in offering human sacrifice be- 
fore the Revolution. There it is kept as a relic and sym-s 
bol of the power once enjoyed by the Church. There is 
yet a lingering hope that there may be restored to these 
brethren the power of roasting alive human beings. In 
speaking of depravity of morals, it is hard to say which 
of the fraternities has reached the lowest level, though 
common consent concedes the palm to the Dominicans. 

The name of the Carmelites carries us back to the 
time of the Crusades ; but they are better known in Mex- 
ico as the former proprietors of the Desierto, which Thom- 
as Gage so touchingly describes. Their habitual prac- 
tice of self-denial and mortification, in appearance, while 
rioting on the luxuries that devotees lavished upon them, 
has not been forgotten. These holy brothers had a hand 
in the Inquisition as well as the Dominicans. They were 
a set of scamps set to watch the purity of other men's 
lives, while they themselves lived a life of habitual profli- 
gacy. The ruins of their old convent, the Desierto, is 
still one of the most attractive spots about the city. 
As the traveler wanders among its ruined walls, he will 
find in the subterraneous cells ring-bolts fastened in the 
walls, where poor prisoners for their faith endured some^ 
thing more than self-mortification. 

The monks of Santiago, San Augustin, and the Cap-^ 
uchins have all fine convents, and are rich ; but the 
monks of Saint James are the most inveterate beggars. 

The monks of San Fernando enjoy an enviable repu- 
tation compared with the spotted sheep I have just been 
considering. They are late comers, and have not learn- 
ed all the ways of wickedness of the older orders. Next 
come the " Brethren of the Profession," of whom it is 
pleasant to speak, after saying so many hard things of 
their neighbors. They stand so high as men of charac- 



334 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

ter and learning, that I am tempted to tell their story on 
hearsay, for want of better authority. They were once 
Jesuits, but when the royal cebula of Carlos III. came 
for their expulsion, these fathers had sustained so good a 
character for charity and usefulness that they were al- 
lowed to return, on condition of renouncing the name 
and peculiarities of that order. I am inclined to believe 
this strange story to be substantially true, for clearly 
they are of the Jesuits, and yet they are not Jesuits. 
The reputation which they enjoyed in 1767 they still 
retain, and not only command the respect of all classes 
of society in Mexico, but their chapel is the fashionable 
church of the city, where genteel people resort to say 
their prayers. 

" The Brethren of the Holy Places of Jerusalem" — the 
Hieronomite monks, are not numerous, and are known 
in the markets as lenders of money, with the interest of 
which they support themselves and " the poor saints of 
Jerusalem;" that is, a portion of those lazy, greasy, fight- 
ing Latin monks at Jerusalem, that have been one of 
the causes of the present war in Europe. 

" The Hospitalers of Saint John" {Juanos) are better 
known for their exploits in the time of the Crusaders 
than for any thing they have done in Mexico. 

It would be a thrice-told tale to repeat the story of the 
Jesuits ; the world knows that too well already. The de- 
tails of their proceedings in Mexico till the time of their 
expulsion have been too often written by their enemies. 
Their great prosperity and their great wealth made them 
the envy of the other orders, as corrupt and depraved as 
themselves, but not so dangerous, because they had 
reached that point at which depravity ceases to contami- 
nate. Dirty, greasy monks could not endure an order 
that wore the garb of gentlemen, and were in favor with 
the aristocracy, while they themselves were despised. 



NUNNERIES. 335 

This envy was all-powerful with them, and led, for a time, 
to the laying aside of their own private bickerings, and 
uniting in the crusade against the common enemy, the 
Jesuits, and acting in harmony with the political power. 

The Church has always made much of the nuns. It 
has ever been the custom of the priesthood to endeavor 
to throw a veil of romance over the very unromantic way 
of life followed by females who have shut themselves up 
for life in a place hardly equal to a second-class state- 
prison. Woman has an important place which God has 
assigned her in the world ; but when she separates her- 
self from the family circle, and elbows her way to the ros- 
trum, where, with a semi-masculine attire, and with a 
voice not intended for oratory, she harangues a tittering 
crowd upon the rights of women to perform the duties 
of men ; or goes to the opposite extreme, and shuts her- 
self up within high stone walls to avoid the society of 
the other sex, she equally sins against her own nature, 
and not only brings misery upon herself, but inflicts upon 
society the evils of a pernicious example, and furnishes 
a theme for all kinds of scandal. 

Proud families who have portionless daughters ; rela- 
tives who desire to get rid of heirs to coveted estates ; 
convents in want of funds and endowments,* or a pretty 

* I have selected three cases of taking the veil, to which I have add- 
ed captions, which lift the veil from this practice of consecrating young 
girls to superstitious uses. They are extracted from Madame Calde- 
ron's Life in Mexico. 

Taking the Veil. 

"I followed the guide back into the sacristy [of the convent], where 
the future nun was seated beside her grandmother, in the midst of her 
friends and relations, about thirty in all. 

"She was arrayed in pale blue satin, with diamonds, pearls, and a 
crown of flowers. She was literally smothered in blonde and jewels ; 
and her face was flushed, as well it might be, for she had passed the day 
in taking leave of her friends at a fete they had given her, and had then, 
according to custom, been paraded through the town in all her finery. 
And now her last hour was at hand. When I came in, she rose and 



336 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

victim for the public entertainment on taking the veil; 
friends who have unmarriageable women on their hands ; 

embraced me with as much cordiality as if we had known each other 
for years. Beside her sat the Madrina, also in white satin and jewels ; 
all the relations being likewise decked out in their finest arra} r . The 
nun kept laughing every now and then in the most unnatural and hys- 
terical manner, as I thought, apparently to impress us with the convic- 
tion of her perfect happiness ; for it is a great point of honor among 
girls similarly situated to look as cheerful and gay as possible — the 
same feeling, though in a different degree, which induces the gallant 
highwayman to jest in the presence of the multitude when the hang- 
man's cord is within an inch of his neck ; the same which makes a gal- 
lant general, whose life is forfeited, command his men to fire on him ; 
the same which makes the Hindoo widow mount the funeral pile with- 
out a tear in her eye or a sigh on her lips. If the robber were to be 
strangled in the corner of his dungeon — if the general were to be put 
to death privately in his own apartment — if the widow were to be burned 
quietly on her own hearth — if the nun were to be secretly smuggled in 
at the convent gate like a bale of contraband goods, we might hear 
another tale. This girl was very young, but by no means pretty ; on 
the contrary, rather disgraciee par la nature; and perhaps a knowledge 
of her own want of attractions may have caused the world to have few 
charms for her. 

" Suddenly the curtain was withdrawn, and the picturesque beauty of 
the scene within baffles all description. Beside the altar, which was in 
a blaze of light, was a perfect mass of crimson and gold drapery ; the 
walls, the antique chairs, the table before which the priests sat, all hung 
with the same splendid material. The Bishop wore his superb mitre, 
and robes of crimson and gold, the attendant priests also glittering in 
crimson and gold embroidery. 

" In contrast to these, five-and-twenty figures, entirely robed in black 
from head to foot, were ranged on each side of the room, prostrate, their 
faces touching the ground, and in their hands immense lighted tapers. 
On the foreground was spread a purple carpet bordered round with a 
garland of freshly-gathered flowers, roses, and carnations, and heliotrope, 
the only things that looked real and living in the whole scene ; and in 
the middle of this knelt the novice, still arrayed in her blue satin, white 
lace veil and jewels, and also with a great lighted taper in her hand. 

" The black nuns then rose and sang a hymn, every now and then 
falling on their faces and touching the floor with their foreheads. The 
whole looked like an incantation, or a scene in Robert le Diable. The 
novice was then raised from the ground and led to the feet of the Bish- 
op, who examined her as to her vocation, and gave her his blessing, and 
once more the black curtain fell between us and them. 

" In the second act she was lying prostrate on the floor, disrobed of 
her profane dress, and covered over with a black cloth, while the black 
figures kneeling around her chanted a hymn. She was now dead to 



NUNNEKIES. 337 

and romantic young misses, ambitions of playing the 
queen for a day at the cost of being a prisoner for life, 

the world. The sunbeams had faded away as if they would not look 
upon the scene, and all the light was concentrated in one great mass 
upon the convent group. 

" Again she was raised. All the blood had rushed into her face, and 
her attempt to smile was truly painful. She then knelt down before 
the Bishop, and received the benediction, with the sign of the cross, from 
a white hand with the pastoral ring. She then went round alone to em- 
brace all the dark phantoms as they stood motionless, and as each dark 
shadow clasped her in its arms, it seemed like the dead welcoming a 
new arrival to the shades. 

"But I forget the sermon, which was delivered by a fat priest, who 
elbowed his way with some difficulty through the crowd to the grating, 
panting and in a prodigious heat, and ensconced himself in a great arm- 
chair close beside us. He assured her that she ' had chosen the good 
part, which could not be taken away from her ;' that she was now one 
of the elect, ' chosen from among the wickedness and dangers of the 
world' — (picked out like a plum from a pie). He mentioned with pity 
and contempt those who were 'yet struggling in the great Babylon,' 
and compared their miserable fate with hers, the Bride of Christ, who, 
after suffering a few privations here during a short term of years, should 
be received at once into a kingdom of glory. The whole discourse was 
well calculated to rally her fainting spirits, if fainting they were, and to 
inspire us with a great disgust for ourselves. 

"When the sermon was concluded the music again struck up; the 
heroine of the day came forward, and stood before the grating to take 
her last look of this wicked world. Down fell the black curtain. Up 
rose the relations, and I accompanied them into the sacristy. Here 
they coolly lighted their cigars, and very philosophically discoursed 
upon the exceeding good fortune of the new-made nun, and on her ev- 
ident delight and satisfaction with her own situation. As we did not 
follow her behind the scenes, I could not give my opinion on this point. 
Shortly after, one of the gentlemen civilly led me to my carriage, and 
so it was" 

A Victim for her Musical Poioers. 

"In the convent of the Incarnation I saw another girl sacrificed in 
a similar manner. She was received there without a dowry, on ac- 
count of the exceeding fineness of her voice. She little thought what 
a fatal gift it would prove to her. The most cruel part of all was that, 
wishing to display her fine voice to the public, they made her sing a 
hymn alone, on her knees, her arms extended in the form of a cross, 
before all the immense crowd: "Ancilla Christi sum," "The bride of 
Christ I am.'' She was a good-looking girl, fat and comely, who would 
probably have led a comfortable life in the world, for which she seemed 
well fitted ; most likely without one touch of romance or enthusiasm in 

P 



338 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

have all contributed to populate the fifteen nunneries of 
the city of Mexico. In the flourishing times of the In- 

her composition ; but, having the unfortunate honor of being niece to 
two chanoines, she was thus honorably provided for without expense in 
her nineteenth year. As might be expected, her voice faltered, and 
instead of singing, she seemed inclined to cry out. Each note came 
slowly, heavily, tremblingly ; and at last she nearly fell forward ex- 
hausted, when two of the sisters caught and supported her." 

A Victim of her Confessor. 

" She was in purple velvet, with diamonds and pearls, and a crown 
of flowers ; the corsage of her gown was entirely covered with little bows 
of ribbon of divers colors, which her friends had given her, each add- 
ing one, like stones thrown on a cairn in memory of the departed. She 
had also short sleeves and white satin shoes. 

"Being very handsome, with fine black eyes, good teeth, and fresh 
color, and, above all, with the beauty of youth, for she is but eighteen, 
she was not disfigured by even this overloaded dress. Her mother, on 
the contrary, who was to act the part of Madrina, who wore a dress fac- 
simile, and who was pale and sad, her eyes almost extingixished with 
weeping, looked like a picture of Misery in a ball-dress. In the ad- 
joining room long tables were laid out, on which servants were placing 
refreshments for the fete about to be given on this joyous occasion. I 
felt somewhat shocked, and inclined to say with Paul Pry, ' Hope I 
don't intrude.' 

" , however, was furious at the whole affair, which he said was 

entirely against the mother's consent, though that of the father had 
been obtained ; and pointed out to me the confessor whose influence 
had brought it about. The girl herself was now very pale, but evi- 
dently resolved to conceal her agitation, and the mother seemed as if 
she could shed no more tears — quite exhausted with weeping. As the 
hour for the ceremony drew near, the whole party became more grave 
and sad, all but the priests, who were smiling and talking together in 
groups. The girl was not still a moment. She kept walking hastily 
through the house, taking leave of the servants, and naming, probably, 
her last wishes about every thing. She was followed by her younger 
sisters, all in tears. 

" But it struck six, and the priests intimated that it was time to move. 
She and her mother went down stairs alone, and entered the carriage 
which was to drive them through all the principal streets, to show the 
nun to the public, according to custom, and to let them take their last 
look, they of her and sbe of them. As they got in, Ave all crowded to 
the balconies to see her take leave of her house, her aunts saying, ' Yes, 
child, despidete de tu casa, take leave of your house, for you will never 
see it again !' Then came sobs from the sisters ; and many of the gen- 
tlemen, ashamed of their emotion, hastily quitted the room. I hope, 
for the sake of humanity, I did not rightly interpret the look of con- 



NUNNEEIES. 339 

quisition, this business of inveigling choice victims into 
convents was more profitable, for then murmuring could 

strained anguish which the poor girl threw from the window of the car- 
riage at the home of her childhood. 

" At stated periods, indeed, the mother may hear her daughter's voice 
speaking to her as from the depths of the tomb, but she may never 
fold her in her arms, never more share in her joys or in her sorrows, or 
nurse her in sickness ; and when her own last hour arrives, though but 
a few streets divide them, she may not give her dying blessing to the 
child who has been for so many years the pride of her eyes and heart. 

" They gave me an excellent place, quite close to the grating, beside 

the Countess de S o ; that is to say, a place to kneel on. A great 

bustle and much preparation seemed to be going on within the convent, 
and veiled figures were flitting about, whispering, arranging, &c. Some- 
times a skinny old dame would come close to the grating, and, lifting 
up her veil, bestow upon the pensive public a generous view of a very 
haughty and very wrinkled visage of some seventy yeai's standing, and 
beckon into the church for the major-domo of the convent (an excellent 
and profitable situation, by the way), or for padre this or that. Some 
of the holy ladies recognized and spoke to me through the grating. 

" But, at the discharge of fireworks outside the church, the curtain 
was dropped, for this was the signal that the nun and her mother had 
arrived. An opening was made in the crowd as they passed into the 
church, and the girl, kneeling down, was questioned by the bishop, but 
I could not make out the dialogue, which was carried on in a low voice. 
She then passed into the convent by a side door, and her mother, quite 
exhausted and nearly in hysterics, was supported through the crowd to 
a place beside us, in front of the grating. The music struck up ; the 
curtain was again drawn aside. The scene was as striking here as in 
the convent of the Santa Teresa, but not so lugubrious. The nuns, all 
ranged around, and carrying lighted tapers in their hands, were dressed 
in mantles of bright blue, with a gold plate on the left shoulder. Their 
faces, however, were covered with deep black veils. The girl, kneeling 
in front, and also bearing a heavy lighted taper, looked beautiful, with 
her dark hair and rich dress, and the long black lashes resting on her 
glowing face. The churchmen near the illuminated and magnificently- 
decked altar formed, as usual, a brilliant background to the picture. 
The ceremony was the same as on the former occasion, but there was 
no sermon. 

"The most terrible thing to witness was the last, straining, anxious 
look which the mother gave her daughter through the grating. She 
had seen her child pressed to the arms of sti-angers and welcomed to 
her new home. She was no longer hers. All the sweet ties of nature 
had been rudely severed, and she had been forced to consign her, in 
the very bloom of youth and beauty, at the very age in which she most 
required a mother's care, and when she had but just fulfilled the prom- 
ise of her childhood, to a living tomb. Still, as long as the curtain had 



340 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

"be crashed into silence, and parents dreaded to oppose 
the wretched pimps of superstition who came to inveigle 
their daughters into convents. 

The Quaker prison of Philadelphia is a paradise com- 
pared with such a place as this. If the reader has ever 
placed his eye at the keeper's eye-hole in that prison, he 
must have seen in many a cell a cheerful face, and the 
appearance of as much comfort as is compatible with an 
imprisoned condition ; for ministering angels have been 
there — mothers in Israel, who have torn themselves from 
their domestic duties for a little time to minister conso- 
lation to the very criminals in prison ; and, now that the 
prison-door has separated the poor wretch forever from 
society, whose laws have been outraged, she, by her kind- 
ness and teaching, has led the convict to look to Heaven 
with a hope of forgiveness, and daily to pray for those 
he has injured, while he reads in the holy book which she 

not fallen, she could gaze upon her as upon one on whom, though dead, 
the coffin-lid is not yet closed. 

" But while the new-made nun was in a blaze of light and distinct on 
the foreground, so that we could mark each varying expression of her 
face, the crowd in the church, and the comparative faintness of the 
light, probably made it difficult for her to distinguish her mother; for, 
knowing that the end was at hand, she looked anxiously and hurriedly 
into the church, without seeming able to fix her eyes on any particular 
object, while her mother seemed as if her eyes were glazed, so intense- 
ly were they fixed upon her daughter. 

" Suddenly, and without any preparation, down fell the black curtain 
like a pall, and the sobs and tears of the family broke forth. One beau- 
tiful little child was carried out almost in fits. Water was brought to 
the poor mother; and at last, making our way with difficulty through 
the dense crowd, we got into the sacristy. ' I declare,' said the Count- 
ess to me, wiping her eyes, ' it is worse than a marriage !' I ex- 
pressed my horror at the sacrifice of a girl so young that she could not 
possibly have known her own mind. Almost all the ladies agreed with 
me, especially all who had daughters, but many of the old gentlemen 
were of a different opinion. The young men were decidedly of my way 
of thinking, but many young girls who were conversing together seemed 
rather to envy their friend, who had looked so pretty and graceful, and 
' so happy,' and whose dress ' suited her so well,' and to have no objec- 
tion to ' go and do likewise.' " 



NUNNERIES AND PRISONS. 341 

gave him, that a repenting thief accompanied the Son of 
God to Paradise. 

Let us turn from such an unpoetical scene as this, 
which that cheerful prison presents, to the convent of 
Santa Teresa, the most celebrated of all the ten or fifteen 
nunneries now in operation about the city of Mexico. 
In a cold, damp, comfortless cell, kneeling upon the pave- 
ment, we may see a delicate woman mechanically repeat- 
ing her daily-imposed penance of Latin prayers, before 
the image of a favorite saint and a basin of holy water. 
This self-regulating, automaton praying machine, as she 
counts off the number of allotted prayers by the number 
of beads upon her rosary, beats into her bosom the sharp 
edge of an iron cross that rests within her shirt of sacking- 
cloth, until, nature and her task exhausted, she throws 
herself down upon a wooden bed, so ingeniously arranged 
as to make sleep intolerable.* This poor victim of self- 

* " The Santa Teresa, however, has few ornaments. It is not nearly 
so large as the Encarnacion^ and admits but twenty-one nuns. At pres- 
ent there are, besides these, but three novices. Its very atmosphere 
seems holy, and its scrupulous and excessive cleanness makes all pro- 
fane dwellings seem dirty by comparison. We were accompanied by 
a bishop, Sefior Madrid, the same who assisted at the archbishop's con- 
secration — a good-looking man, young and tall, and very splendidly 
dressed. His robes were of purple satin, covered with fine point-lace, 
with a large cross of diamonds and amethysts. He also wore a cloak 
of very fine purple cloth, lined with crimson velvet, crimson stockings, 
and an immense amethyst ring. 

"When he came in we found that the nuns had permission to put 
up their veils, rarely allowed in this order in the presence of strangers. 
They have a small garden and fountain, plenty of flowers, and some 
fruit; but all is on a smaller scale, and sadder than in the convent of 
the Incarnation. The refectory is a large room, with a long, narrow 
table running all round it — a plain deal table, with wooden benches; 
before the place of each nun, an earthen bowl, an earthen cup with an 
apple in it, a wooden plate, and a wooden spoon ; at the top of the ta- 
ble a grinning skull, to remind them that even these indulgences they 
shall not long enjoy. 

" In one corner of the room is a reading-desk, a sort of elevated pul- 
pit, where one reads aloud from some holy book while the others dis- 
cuss their simple fare. They showed us a crown of thorns, which, on 



342 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

inflicted daily torture, half crazed from insufficient food, 
and sleep, and clothing, has endured all this misery to 

certain days, is worn by one of their number by way of penance. It is 
made of iron, so that the nails, entering inward, run into the head, and 
make it bleed. While she wears this on her head, a sort of wooden bit 
is put into her mouth, and she lies prostrate on her face till dinner is 
ended ; and while in this condition her food is given her, of which she 
eats as much as she can, which probably is none. 

"We visited the different cells, and were horror-struck at the self- 
inflicted tortures. Each bed consists of a wooden plank raised in the 
middle, and, on days of penitence, crossed by Avooden bars. The pil- 
low is wooden, with a cross lying on it, which they hold in their hands 
when they lie down. The nun lies on this penitential couch, embrac- 
ing the cross, and her feet hanging out, as the bed is made too short 
for her, upon principle. Round her waist she occasionally wears a band 
with iron points turning inward ; on her breast a cross with nails, of 
which the points enter the flesh, of the truth of which I had melancholy 
ocular demonstration. Then, after having scoxirged herself with a whip 
covered with iron nails, she lies down for a few hours on the wooden 
bai-s, and rises at four o'clock. All these instruments of discipline, 
which each nun keeps in a little box beside her bed, look as if their 
fitting place would be in the dungeons of the Inquisition. They made 
me try their bed and board, which I told them would give me a very de- 
cided taste for early rising. 

" Yet they all seem as cheerful as possible, though it must be con- 
fessed that many of them look pale and unhealthy. It is said that, 
when they are strong enough to stand this mode of life, they live very 
long ; but it frequently happens that girls who come into this convent 
are obliged to leave it from sickness long before the expiration of their 
novitiate. I met with the girl whom I had seen take the veil, and can 
not say that she looked either well or cheerful, though she assured me 
that ' of course, in doing the will of God,' she was both. There was 
not much beauty among them generally, though one or two had remains 

of great loveliness. My friend, the Madre A , is handsomer on a 

closer view than I had supposed her, and seems an especial favorite 
with old and young. But there was one Avhose face must have been 
strikingly beautiful. She was as pale as marble, and, though still young, 
seemed in very delicate health ; but her eyes and eyebrows were as 
black as jet; the eyes so large and soft, the eyebrows two penciled arch- 
es, and her smiles so resigned and sweet, would have made her the 
loveliest model imaginable for a Madonna. 

"Again, as in the Incarnation, they had taken the trouble to prepare 
an elegant supper for us. The bishop took his place in an antique vel- 
vet chair; the Senora and I were placed on each side of him. The 

room was very well lighted, and there was as great a profusion of cus- 
tards, jellies, and ices as if we had been supping at the most profane 
cafe*. The nuns did not sit down, but walked about, pressing us to eat, 



NUNNERIES AND PRISONS. 343 

accumulate a stock of good works for the use of less mer- 
itorious sinners, besides the amount necessary to cany 
herself to heaven ; for penance, and not repentance, is 
this poor pagan's password for salvation. 

The old Quakeress is not a fashionable saint, for she 
never dreamed of this huxter business in spiritual affairs. 
Out of the overflowing goodness of her heart, she had 
tried to lighten the miseries of life in her own humble 
and quiet way, and found her happiness in seeing all 
about her made comfortable. The money that others 
expended in buying masses for the repose of their own 
souls and those of their relatives after death, she expend- 
ed in ministering to soul and body in this world, leaving 
to God above the affairs of departed spirits, to deal with 
them according to His mercy. She never presumed to 
add to the torments of this life, or undertook to lighten 
the torments of the departed. Her duties lay all in this 
world, and when her labors were ended, she quietly lay 

the bishop now and then giving them cakes, with permission to eat 
them, which they received laughing. 

" After supper a small harp was brought in, which had been sent for 
by the bishop's permission. It was terribly out of tune, with half the 
strings broken ; but we were determined to grudge no trouble in putting 
it in order, and giving these poor recluses what they considered so great 
a gratification. We got it into some sort of condition at last, and when 
they heard it played, they were vehement in their expressions of delight. 

The Senora , who has a charming voice, afterward sang to them, 

the bishop being very indulgent, and permitting us to select whatever 
songs we chose, so that, when rather a profane canticle, " The Virgin 
of the Pillar" (La Virgin del Pilar), was sung, he very kindly turned a 
deaf ear to it, and seemed busily engaged in conversation with an old 
madre till it was all over. 

" In these robes they are buried ; and one would think that if any 
human being can ever leave this world without a feeling of regret, it 
must be a nun of the Santa Teresa, when, her privations in this world 
ended, she lays down her blameless life, and joins the pious sisterhood 
who have gone before her; dying where she has lived, surrounded by 
her companions, her last hours soothed by their prayers and tears, sure 
of their vigils for the repose of her soul, and, above all, sure that nei- 
ther pleasure nor vanity will ever obliterate her remembrance from 
their hearts." — Life, in Mexico, vol. ii. p. 9. 



344 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

down in death, leaving her future condition to God. She 
never would pierce her bosom with an iron cross, though 
it had often been pierced by the trials of life. She has 
seen enough of real poverty and mortification, but never 
dreamed of such a thing as poverty and mortification 
self-imposed, by wearing upon her flesh a garment of 
sacking-cloth, or the ingenious invention of a bed so con- 
trived as to deprive herself of wholesome sleep. Images 
and holy water occupy no place in her creed, though soap 
and water are almost too prominent. She did her good 
deeds from a sense of duty which she owed to her kind, 
and from the pleasure that it gave her to relieve misery 
while discharging the ordinary duties of life, and never 
dreamed of the sweet odor her good works left behind 
her — an odor which followed her to heaven — an odor 
more acceptable to the Almighty than all the endow- 
ments she might have left to pay for masses for the re- 
pose of her soul. 

There is so much that is monotonous in talking over 
the details of affairs of the different orders of these fe- 
male monks, from the Sister of Guadalupe to the Sister- 
hood of Mercy, that it is as well to consider them as one, 
as divers households of single women, who, to win ex- 
traordinary favor of God, had separated themselves from 
their families, and devoted their lives, some to repeating 
prayers and acts of self-mortification, some to attending 
at the hospitals on the sick or the blind, the idiotic, the 
deformed, the deaf and the dumb, others to educating 
young ladies according to their peculiar notions of edu- 
cation, others again consecrating themselves to pauper- 
ism, and living upon charity ; and when the daily sup- 
ply of alms has failed, these self-made poor sisters col- 
lect together, and there wait and pray, and ring their bell, 
until some benevolent individual shall chance to hear the 
well-known signal, and come and relieve them. 



SELF-CASTIGATION. 345 

Such is the system of religion of all countries which 
bear the Christian name, but where freedom does not ex- 
ist, and where liberty can not thrive. There is a trifling 
difference in its phases as exhibited in the Greek and 
the Latin Churches, but the difference is too slight for 
us outsiders to notice. In Mexico it exists in its most 
unadulterated state, less contaminated than elsewhere 
with Protestantism or other foreign substances. 

The old farce of self-castigation is here still enacted, 
as it has been for three hundred years, but in the dark, 
of course ; and blood, or some substitute for it, is heard 
to fall upon the floor by the few selected witnesses ;* but 

* " All Mexicans at present, men and women, are engaged in what 
are called the desagravios, a public penance performed at this season in 
the churches during thirty-five days. The women attend church in 
the morning, no men being permitted to enter, and the men in the even- 
ing, when women are not admitted. Both rules are occasionally bro- 
ken. The penitence of the men is most severe, their sins being no 
doubt proportionably greater than those of the women ; though it is one 
of the few countries where they suffer for this, or seem to act upon the 
principle, that ' if all men had their deserts, who would escape whip- 
ping?' 

"To-day we attended the morning penitence at six o'clock, in the 
church of San Francisco, the hardest part of which was their having 
to kneel for about ten minutes with their arms extended in the form of 
a cross, uttering groans, a most painful position for any length of time. 
It was a profane thought, but I dare say so many hundreds of beauti- 
fully-formed arms and hands were seldom seen extended at the same 
moment before. Gloves not being worn in church, and many of the 
women having short sleeves, they were very much seen. 

"But the other night I was present at a much stranger scene, at the 
discipline performed by the men, admission having been procured for 
us by certain means, private but powerful. Accordingly, when it was 
dark, enveloped from head to foot in large cloaks, and without the slight- 
est idea of what it was, we went en foot through the streets to the 
church of San Agustin. When we arrived, a small side door apparent- 
ly opened of itself, and we entered, passing through long vaulted pas- 
sages, and up steep winding stairs, till we found ourselves in a small 
railed gallery looking down directly upon the church. The scene was 
curious. About one hundred and fifty men, enveloped in cloaks and 
sarapes, their faces entirely concealed, were assembled in the body of 
the church. A monk had just mounted the pulpit, and the church was 
dimly lighted, except where he stood in bold relief, with his gay robes 

P2 



346 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

a party of boys, report says, being somewhat skeptical 
about the quality of this blood, concealed themselves in 

and cowl thrown back, giving a full view of his high, bald forehead and 
expressive face. 

" His discourse was a rude but very forcible and eloquent description 
of the torments- prepared in hell for impenitent sinners. The effect of 
the whole was very solemn. It appeared like a preparation for the ex- 
ecution of a multitude of condemned criminals. When the discourse 
was finished, they all joined in prayer with much fervor and enthusi- 
asm, beating their breasts and falling upon their faces. Then the monk 
stood up, and in a veiy distinct voice read several passages of Scrip- 
ture descriptive of the sufferings of Christ. The organ then struck up 
the Miserere, and all of a sudden the church was plunged in profound 
darkness, all but a sculptured representation of the Crucifixion, which 
seemed to hang in the air illuminated. I felt rather frightened, and 
would have been glad to leave the church, but it would have been im- 
possible in the darkness. Suddenly a terrible voice in the dark cried, 
'My brothers! when Christ was fastened to the pillar by the Jews, he 
was scourged!' At these words the bright figure disappeared, and the 
darkness became total. Suddenly we heard the sound of hundreds of 
scourges descending upon the bare flesh. I can not conceive any thing 
more horrible. Before ten minutes had passed, the sound became 
splashing from the blood that was flowing. 

" I have heard of these penitencies in Italian churches, and also that 
half of those who go there do not really scourge themselves ; but here, 
where there is such perfect concealment, there seems no motive for de- 
ception. Incredible as it may seem, this awful penance continued, 
without intermission, for half an hour! If they scourged each other, 
their energy might be less astonishing. 

"We could not leave the church, but it was perfectly sickening ; and 

had I not been able to take hold of the Senora 's hand, and feel 

something human beside me, I could have fancied myself transported 
into a congregation of evil spirits. Now and then, but very seldom, a 
suppressed groan was heard, and occasionally the voice of the monk 
encouraging them by ejaculations, or by short passages from Scripture. 
Sometimes the organ struck up, and the poor wretches, in a faint voice, 
tried to join in the Miserere. The sound of the scourging is indescriba- 
ble. At the end of half an hour a little bell was rung, and the voice 
of the monk was heard calling upon them to desist ; but such was their 
enthusiasm, that the horrible lashing continued louder and fiercer than 
ever. 

"In vain he entreated them not to kill themselves, and assured them 
that heaven would be satisfied, and that human nature could not en- 
dure beyond a certain point. No answer but the loud sound of the 
scourges, which are many of them of iron, with sharp points that enter 
the flesh. At length, as if they were perfectly exhausted, the sound 
grew fainter, and little by little ceased altogether. We then got up in 



PENANCES. 347 

the church, and when the pious farce began, took so act- 
ive a part in the sport upon the naked backs of the fa- 
thers, as to inflict bodily injury, and break up the bloody 
entertainment. Still Protestantism has been felt in 
Mexico, if not embraced, and the common people look 
back to the happy time when the soldiers of their Prot- 
estant conquerors made money plenty among them, and 
when even-handed justice was dealt out alike to rich and 
poor, high and low. Though the foreigners laughed at 
the fables of the priests and ridiculed the monks, they 
yet were honest in their dealings with the people instead 
of taking by violence. As there are no people so besot- 
ted that they do not admire courage and honesty, so the 
Paisano looks upon the heretic as a man of a superior 
race to himself. 

the dark, and with great difficulty groped otir way in the pitch dark- 
ness through the galleries and down the stairs till we reached the door, 
and had the pleasure of feeling the fresh air again. They say that the 
church floor is frequently covered with blood after one of these penan- 
ces, and that a man died the other day in consequence of his wounds." 
— Life in Mexico, vol. ii. p. 213. 



CHAPTER XXX. 

The Necessity of large Capitals in Mexico. — The Finances and Reve- 
nue. — The impoverished Creditors of the State. — Princely Wealth 
of Individuals. 

Having spoken of the Clmrch, the great power which 
overawes the government, it is also proper to mention the 
secondary powers : the men of colossal fortune. In a 
country like Mexico, whose wealth arises from mines of 
silver, these immense private fortunes are requisite to the 
successful development of its resources. Large capitals 
must be constantly hazarded on the single chance of 
striking a bonanza, in an adventure as uncertain as a 
game of monte. The abandoned mine often turns out 
to be the treasury of an untold fortune to the man who 
was laughed at for attempting its restoration, while the 
most promising adventure proves a total failure. The 
temptations to these adventures are dazzling in the ex- 
treme. The ambitious man forgets the shame and irre- 
trievable ruin that follows a failure, and looks only to the 
chances of winning a title of nobility and "a house full 
of silver. " Men who shun the gambling-table will ad- 
venture all on a mine, and in a year or two they have 
passed from the memory of men, for they have become 
poor. Again, a man of slender means has become rich 
in the Mexican sense, which means a man of millions, 
and then he is at once elevated by his admirers into that 
brilliant constellation which is the "great bear" of the 
Mexican firmament. 

Still, these powerful private individuals prevent the 
consolidation of any government, whether republican or 



STATE CEEDITOES. 349 

dictatorial, and put far off that necessary evil, the con- 
fiscation of the estates of the Church. If there is a Con- 
gress in session, its members are influenced as our own 
are influenced. They are swayed this way and that by 
private interests. When Congress is not in session, they 
are constantly operating upon the treasury, or, rather, 
the minister of the treasury is diving about among them 
to raise the means to keep afloat from day to day. They 
will not submit to their full share of taxation. When 
they advance money on the pledge of some income, it is 
on the most onerous terms, so that at least one quarter 
of the revenue of Mexico is used up in interest or usury. 
Long experience has reduced the business of shaving the 
revenue to a system. The most common way to do this 
is to buy up some claim at twelve and a half cents on a 
dollar, and then couple it at par with a loan of money on 
the assignment of some rent. Every thing is farmed 
out, until at last, two years ago, Escandon proposed to 
farm the whole foreign duties. 

Many a time have I sat down in the large ante-room 
of the treasury to look upon and study the characters of 
those who have come there to be disappointed, when 
promises will no longer satisfy hunger. One poor wom- 
an had got a new promise in 1851, and three months' 
interest, on money deposited with the Consolado of Yera 
Cruz, and invested in 1810 in building the great road 
of Perote. Santa Anna, on his return, gave her a new 
order, and she presented it to the minister with bright 
hopes, when he gave her fifteen dollars — all he had in 
the treasury. The best way to collect a debt at Mex- 
ico is to convert it into a foreign debt, if possible, and 
then, if there is a resident that stands high with his min- 
ister, the matter meets with prompt attention. He that 
can buy a foreign embassador at Mexico has made a 
fortune. 



350 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

I have spoken of two rich men of Mexico, the first 
Count of Regla, and one who has succeeded to his mine. 
As I was standing on the Paseo, a lad passed driving a 
fine span of mules. " That is the Count de Galvez," 
said my companion, " the son of the late Count Perez 
Galvez, the lucky proprietor of the bonanza in the mine 
of La Suz at Guanajuato." 

"But that bonanza has given out," said I. 

" No matter ; this boy's inheritance is sometimes esti- 
mated at $9,000,000." A snug capital with which to 
"begin the world ! 

Laborde, the Frenchman who projected and estab- 
lished the magnificent garden at Cuarnavaca, and also 
built, from his private fortune, the great Cathedral of 
Toluca, made and spent two princely fortunes in suc- 
cessful mining, and at last ended his checkered career 
in poverty. The Countess Kuhl, the mother of young 
Galvez, and her brother the Count Ruhl, are also fortu- 
nate miners. The latter is now interested in the Heal 
del Monte. But the rich man of the Republic is the 
Marquis de Jaral, in the small but rich mining depart- 
ment of Guanajuato. This man's wealth surpasses that 
of all the three patriarchs put together. A few years 
ago, the whole amount of his live-stock was set down by 
his administrador (overseer) at three million head. He 
then sent thirty thousand sheep* to market, which yield- 
ed him from $2 50 to $3 a head, or from $75,000 to 
$90,000 annually. The goats slaughtered on the estate 
amounted to about the same number, and yielded about 
the same amount of revenue. Besides all this, there is 
his annual product of horses and cattle, and corn and 
grain fields many miles in extent. Truly this Marquis 
of Jaral is a large farmer. But as I said of mining, so 
I may also say that large capitals are necessary to carry 
* Ward's Mexico, vol. ii. p. 470. 



MEXICAN MILLIONAIRES. 351 

on agriculture successfully in the vast elevated plains of 
the northern, or, rather, interior departments, for the 
whole value of the valley of Jaral consists in an artificial 
lake, which an ancestor of the present proprietor con- 
structed before the Revolution for the purpose of irriga- 
tion ; for, without irrigation, his little kingdom would be 
without value. I might speak of many other landed 
proprietors whose estates are princely, but none are equal 
to Jaral. Indeed, all men of wealth possess landed es- 
tates. It is the favorite investment for successful min- 
ers to purchase 2, few plantations, each of a dozen leagues 
or so, under cultivation. 



CHAPTER XXXI. 

Visit to Pachuca and Real del Monte. — Otumba and Tulanzingo. — The 
grand Canal of Huehuetoca. — The Silver Mines of Pachuca. — Hakal 
Silver Mines. — Real del Monte Mines. — The Anglo-Mexican Mining 
Fever. — My Equipment to descend a Mine. — The great Steam-pump. 
— Descending the great Shaft. — Galleries and Veins of Ore. — Among 
the Miners one thousand Feet under Ground. — The Barrel Process 
of refining Silver. — Another refining Establishment. 

An opposition line of stages upon the road that ex- 
tends sixty miles from the city of Mexico to the north- 
ern extremity of the valley has brought down the fare 
to $3. It is a hard road to travel in the wet season, and 
not a very interesting one at any time. Three miles of 
causeway across the salt marsh brought us to the church 
and village of our Lady of Guadalupe Hidalgo. From 
this place we passed for several leagues along the barren 
tract that lies between the two salt-ponds of San Cris- 
tobal and Tezcuco, and soon arrived at Tulanzingo, 
where the great battle of the Free-masons was fought, and 
where eight poor fellows lost their lives in the bloody 
encounter. This, and the horrible battle of Otumba, 
which Cortez fought a little way east of this spot, are 
memorable events in the history of Mexico — more mem- 
orable than they deserve to have been. 

As we rode along the eastern rim of the valley, the 
sun was shining brightly on the western hill that in^ 
closed it. The opening made by the canal of Huehue- 
toca was plain in sight. To read about this canal and 
to derive an idea of it from books is to get an impression 
that here, at least, the Spaniards did a wonderful work. 
But to look at it is to dissipate all such compliment- 



THE HAKAL MINE. 353 

ary notions. The engineer who planned it may have 
been a skillful man, but the government that fettered his 
movements, like all Spanish governments of those times, 
consisted of a cross between fools and priests. Even 
those pious gamblers, the Franciscans, had a finger in 
the business. After absorbing, for near a hundred years, 
the revenue appropriated to completing the work, they 
abandoned it to the merchants of Mexico, who finally 
finished it. The pond that was to be drained by it, the 
Zumpango, was certainly an insignificant affair. There 
was nothing farther of interest until we arrived at Pa- 
chuca. 

Pachuca is the oldest mining district in Mexico. In 
its immediate vicinity are the most interesting silver 
mines of the republic. These mines were the first that 
were worked in the country, and immediately after the 
Conquest they were very productive. They were worked 
for generations, and then abandoned ; again resumed aft- 
er lying idle for nearly a century, and worked for almost 
another hundred years ; and then once more abandoned, 
and resumed again while I was in Mexico. They now 
produce that princely revenue to Escandon and Com- 
pany of which I have already spoken. 

The Hakal (Haxal) mine in part belonged to the 
number of those which the English Real del Monte Com- 
pany worked on shares, with poor success, for twenty- 
five years. It lies about three fourths of a mile from 
the village of Pachuca. That company devoted their 
chief attention to the mines upon the top of the mount- 
ain, at an elevation of 9057 feet, and seven miles dis- 
tant from this place, and these mines were comparatively 
neglected. The new company, immediately upon tak- 
ing possession, devoted particular attention to the Hakal, 
which resulted in their striking a bonanza,* in the Ro- 
* A very rich portion of a vein is called a bonanza. 



354 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

sario shaft, which was yielding, from a single small shaft, 
about $80,000 a month, if I recollect rightly.* The ore 
of this mine is of a peculiar quality, and its silver is best 
separated from the scoria by the smelting process, of 
which I shall treat more fully when I come to speak 
of the mines of Kegla. The Guadalupe shaft, close by 
the Hosario, was doing but little when I was there, as 
it does not belong to the same proprietors. On the 
night of my arrival they had just completed the work of 
pumping the water out of the San Nicholas shaft, famous 
for the immense amount of silver taken from it in the 
early period of the mining history of Mexico. 

Mounted on a good horse, and followed by a lackey, I 
rode up the zigzag carriage-road which the English com- 
pany constructed a quarter of a century since in order to 
convey their immense steam machinery to the top of the 
mountain, some seven miles distant. This road is still 
kept in a good state of repair, and forms a romantic drive 
for those who keep carriages in the mountains. The sun 
was shining upon the cultivated hills and rolling lands 
far below us as we jogged along our winding way up the 
mountain. At every turn in the road new beauties pre- 
sented themselves. But it was getting too chilly for 
moralizing, and both lackey and I were pleased when 
we reached the village upon the top of the mountain, 
which bears the name of Real del Monte. The house of 
entertainment here is kept by an English woman, who 
seems to be a part of the mining establishment. While 
in her domicile, I found no occasion to regret that I was 
again elevated into a cold latitude. 

More than thirty years have passed since that second 
South Sea delusion, the Anglo-Spanish American min- 

* Mr. Thomas Auld, the director of the company, furnished me 
very accurate data in relation to affairs, but these are with my other 
losses at New Orleans. 



THE MININa MANIA. 355 

ing fever, broke out in England. It surpassed a thou- 
sand-fold the wildest of all the New York and California 
mining and quartz mining organizations of the last five 
years. Prudent financiers in London ran stark mad in 
calculating the dividends they must unavoidably real- 
ize upon investments in a business to be carried on in a 
distant country, and managed and controlled by a debat- 
ing society or board of directors in London. Money was 
advanced with almost incredible recklessness, and agents 
were posted off with all secresy to be first to secure from 
the owner of some abandoned mine the right to work it 
before the agent of some other company should arrive 
on the ground. No mine was to be looked at that was 
not named in the volumes of Humboldt, and any mine 
therein named was valued above all price. In the end, 
some $50,000,000 of English capital ran out, and was 
used up in Mexico. It was one of those periodical ma- 
nias that regularly seize a commercial people once in 
ten years, and for which there is no accounting, and no 
remedy but to let it have its way and work out its own 
cure in the ruin of thousands. It is the same in our 
own country.* 

* Before leaving California, a young man in my office, who had been 
using some of my money which he could not replace, proposed to re- 
pay me in a certificate printed in red ink, which certificate declared 

that I had paid $2000 toward the capital stock of Mining 

Company ; Capital Stock, $250,000 ; signed Col. , President, a 

gentleman a little in arrears at his boarding-house, and my defaulting 
young man was secretary. Bather an unpromising show that, as the 
property consisted of a tavern, built of canvas upon Colonel Fremont's 
Maraposa grant, on the principle of squatter sovereignty. Near by the 
squatter had dug a promising hole, and if only money and machinery 
could be had, perhaps he might realize something from it. The young 
man assured me that they had an agent in New York negotiating for 
machinery, and in a few months they would be able to declare divi- 
dends. Biting my lips to suppress a hearty laugh, I put the paper print- 
ed with red ink into my pocket. 

On my arrival in New York, I was thunderstruck at seeing a gilded 
sign stuck up on the Merchants' Exchange : " Mining Company 



356 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

After a hearty breakfast at the tavern, I called at the 
office, or, as it is here called, "the Grand House" (Casa 
Grande), and was introduced by Mr. Auld, the director, 
to the foreman, who took me to the dressing-room, where 
I was stripped, and clad in the garb of a miner except 
the boots, which were all too short for my feet. My rig 
was an odd one ; a skull-cap formed like a fireman's, a 
miner's coat and pants, and my own calf-skin boots. But 
in California I had got used to uncouth attire, and now 

Office." Not over-troubled by modesty, I ventured in, and inquired if 
that machinery had been sent out. I was requested to be seated in a 
fine cushioned chair. As I love entertainment, I sat down, and took a 
survey of the desks, the Brussels carpet, the ledgers, and the piles of 
pamphlets, which clearly demonstrated that a man would get his money 
back many times over before he paid it in. It seemed strange how all 
this could be supported on the supposed future earnings of a hole in the 
ground. The Board of Directors assembled. Many of them, I was as- 
sured, were the leading men of New York, and things went off with all 
solemnity. When all was ready, an immense piece of the richest gold 
quartz was taken from a desk, such as used to be sold at good prices in 
San Francisco for this very purpose. But not a man in that august as- 
sembly dreamed of the manner in which such things are gotten up, ex- 
cept perhaps the said agent sent out to get machinery, but now figuring 
as a director. I was easily prevailed on to sign an argumentative certifi- 
cate, and was shown one signed by Robert J. Walker on a much worse 
hole in the ground than this. I was also informed that New York was 
not the proper market, which I understand to mean that machinery 
could not be obtained in New York on the credit of a quartz vein ; and 
in London they would not look at a scheme that did not embrace a mill- 
ion at least, said the agent aforesaid. Therefore he proposed to give 
me an engraved certificate, declaring that I had paid $8000, which of 
course I readily accepted when I found that there was no machinery in 
the case, and that all I had to rest my engraved certificate upon was the 
one hundredth part of the said hole in the ground, with a doubtful title. 
The last I heard of this agent was, that he was traveling with his wife 
xipon the Rhine. Whether he was in search of machinery or not, I did 
not stop to inquire. 

Instead of the above being an extraordinary case, I understand that 
it is about a fair average of the California gold schemes that have been 
brought upon the stock-market of New York. If the papers are only 
drawn up in the proper form, the most prudent men in Wall Street are 
sometimes found to embark their capital before the question has ever 
been settled whether gold can be successfully obtained from quartz in 
California. 



DESCENT INTO A MINE. 357 

thought nothing of such small matters. We therefore 
walked on without comments to the house built over the 
great shaft, where my good-natured English companion, 
the foreman, stopped me to complete my equipment, 
which consisted of a lighted tallow candle stuck in a 
candlestick of soft mud, and pressed till it adhered to the 
front of my miner's hat. Having fixed a similar append- 
age to his own hat and to the hat of the servant that was 
to follow us, we were considered fully equipped for de- 
scending the mine. 

While standing at the top of the shaft, I was aston- 
ished at the size and perfect finish of a steam-pump that 
had been imported from England by the late English 
mining company. With the assistance of balancing 
weights, the immense arms of the engine lifted, with 
mathematical precision, two square timbers, the one 
spliced out to the length of a thousand, the other twelve 
hundred feet, which fell back again by their own weight : 
these were the pumping-rods, which lifted the water four 
hundred feet to the mouth of a tunnel, or adit, which 
carried it a mile and a quarter through the mountain, 
and discharged it in the creek above the stamping-mill. 
There is a smaller pump, which works occasionally, when 
the volume of water in the mines is too great for the 
power of a single pump. 

A trap-door being lifted, we began to descend by small 
ladders that reached from floor to floor in the shaft, or, 
rather, in the half of the shaft. The whole shaft was 
perhaps fifteen or twenty feet square, with sides formed 
of solid masonry, where the rock happened to be soft, 
while in other parts it consisted of natural porphyry rock 
cut smooth. Half of this shaft was divided off by a par- 
tition, which extended the whole distance from the top 
to the bottom of the mine. Through this the materials 
used in the work were let down, and the ore drawn up 



358 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

in large sacks, consisting each of the skin of an ox. The 
other half of the shaft contained the two pumping tim- 
bers, and numerous floorings at short distances ; from 
one to another of these ran ladders, by which men were 
continually ascending and descending, at the risk of fall- 
ing only a few feet at the utmost. The descent from 
platform to platform was an easy one, while the little 
walk upon the platform relieved the muscles exhausted 
by climbing down. With no great fatigue I got down 
a thousand feet, where our farther progress was stopped 
by the water that filled the lower galleries. 

Galleries are passages running off horizontally from 
the shaft, either cut through the solid porphyry to inter- 
sect some vein, or else the space which a vein once oc- 
cupied is fitted up for a gallery by receiving a wooden 
floor and a brick arch over head. They are the pas- 
sages that lead to others, and to transverse galleries and 
veins, which, in so old a mine as this, are very numer- 
ous. When a vein sufficiently rich to warrant working is 
struck, it is followed through all its meanderings as long 
as it pays for digging. The opening made in following it 
is, of course, as irregular in form and shape as the vein it- 
self. The loose earth and rubbish taken out in following 
it is thrown into some abandoned opening or gallery, so 
that nothing is lifted to the surface but the ore. Some- 
times several gangs of hands will be working upon the 
same vein, a board and timber floor only separating one 
set from another. When I have added to this descrip- 
tion that this business of digging out veins has contin- 
ued here for near three hundred years, it can well be con- 
ceived that this mountain ridge has become a sort of 
honey-comb. 

When our party had reached the limit of descent, we 
turned aside into a gallery, and made our way among 
gangs of workmen, silently pursuing their daily labor in 



THE MINEKS. 359 

galleries and chambers reeking with moisture, while the 
water trickled down on every side on its way to the com- 
mon receptacle at the bottom. Here we saw English 
carpenters dressing timbers for flooring by the light of 
tallow candles that burned in soft mud candlesticks ad- 
hering to the rocky walls of the chamber. Men were in- 
dustriously digging upon the vein, others disposing of 
the rubbish, while convicts were trudging along under 
heavy burdens of ore, which they supported on their 
backs by a broad strap across their foreheads. As we 
passed among these well-behaved gangs of men, I was 
a little startled by the foreman remarking that one of 
those carriers had been convicted of killing ten men, and 
was under sentence of hard labor for life. Far from 
there being any thing forbidding in the appearance of 
these murderers, now that they were beyond the reach 
of intoxicating drink, they bore the ordinary subdued ex- 
pression of the Meztizo. According to custom, they lash- 
ed me to a stanchion as an intruder ; but, upon the fore- 
man informing them that I would pay the usual forfeit 
of cigaritos on arriving at the station-house, they good- 
naturedly relieved me. Then we journeyed on and on, 
until my powers of endurance could sustain no more. 
We sat down to rest, and to gather strength for a still 
longer journey. At length we set out again, sometimes 
climbing up, sometimes climbing down ; now stopping 
to examine different specimens of ores that reflected back 
the glare of our lights with dazzling brilliancy, and to 
look at the endless varieties in the appearance of the rock 
that filled the spaces in the porphyry matrix. Then 
we walked for a long way on the top of the aqueduct 
of the adit, until we at last reached a vacant shaft, 
through which we were drawn up and landed in the pris- 
on-house, from whence we walked to the station-house, 
where we were dressed in our own clothes again. 



360 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

When my underground wanderings were ended, and 
dinner eaten, it was too late in the day to visit the re- 
fining works ; but on the next morning, bright and early, 
I was in the saddle, on my way to visit the different 
establishments connected with this mine. First, upon 
the river, at the mouth of the adit, was a stamping-mill, 
where gangs of stamps were playing in troughs, and re- 
ducing the hard ore to a coarse powder. A little way 
farther down the stream the ore was ground, and then, 
in blast ovens or furnaces, was heated until all the baser 
metals in the ore became charged with oxygen to such a 
degree that they would not unite with quicksilver. The 
ore was then carried and placed in the bottom of large 
casks, and water and quicksilver were added, and then 
they were set rolling by machinery for several days, un- 
til the silver had formed an amalgam with the mercury, 
while the baser metals in the ore were disengaged from 
the silver. The whole mass being now poured out into 
troughs, the scoria was washed off from the amalgam, 
which was gathered and put into a stout leathern bag 
with a cloth bottom, and the unabsorbed mercury drain- 
ed out. The amalgam, resembling lead in appearance, 
being now cut up into cakes, and placed under an im- 
mense retort, fire was applied ; the mercury, in form of 
vapor, was driven through a hole in the bottom of the 
platform into water, where it was condensed, while the 
silver remained pure in the retort. This is called the 
barrel process, and is used for certain kinds of ore. 

I had come self-introduced to the Real del Monte, but 
that had not prevented my receiving the accustomed 
hospitality of the establishment. A groom and two of 
their best horses were at my service during my stay. 
As the weather was fine, and the roads of the first class 
of English carriage-ways, I heartily enjoyed the ride 
down the mountain gorge until it opened upon the broad 



REFINING SILVER. 361 

plain where the second refining establishment, that of 
Vincente, is situated. Except that the iron floors of 
their blast ovens were made to revolve while in a state 
of red heat, all was substantially the same as at the last 
place. Following the meanderings of the stream, I had 
been gradually descending from the sharp air of early 
spring to the more appropriate temperature of the trop- 
ics, as I had occasion to notice in looking into the fine 
garden of the English director, which exhibited both the 
fertilizing effects of irrigation upon English flowers, and 
the advantages of tropical heat upon native varieties. 

Q 



CHAPTER XXXII. 

A Visit to the Refining-mills. — The Tails and basaltic Columns of Reg- 
la. — How a Title is acquired to Silver Mines. — The Story of Peter 
Terreros, Count of Regla. — The most successful of Miners. — Silver 
obtained by fusing the Ore. — Silver "benefited" upon the Patio. — 
The Tester of the Patio. — The chemical Processes employed. — The 
Heirs of the Count of Regla.— The Ruin caused by Civil War. — The 
Histoiy of the English Company. 

We rode along the stone road across the plain, pass- 
ing now a number of English-made wagons laden with 
stamped ore for Regla, and then a drove of cargo-don- 
keys trudging along under the weight of bags filled with 
the rich ore of Hakal. Now and then, too, we encounter- 
ed American army-wagons converted to peaceful employ- 
ment, and adding to the material wealth of Mexico. But 
our ride was not a long one before we reached Regla, 
the utmost limit of our journeyings, a distance of twelve 
miles from the "Real." Here the first salutation from 
the English gentleman at the head of the establishment 
was that breakfast was waiting, as it was now eleven 
o'clock, and we must not visit the works upon an empty 
stomach. My surprise at this unlooked-for hospitality 
was a little diminished when I learned that all these en- 
tertainments of strangers are at the company's expense. 

The jpatio, or open yard of Regla, on which the princi- 
pal portion of the ores of the Real del Monte company 
are "benefited," or, as we should say, extracted, is sit- 
uated deep down in a barranca, where both water-power 
and intense heat can be obtained to facilitate the process 
of separation. The immense amount of mason-work 
here expended in the erection of massive walls would 



THE FALLS OF REGLA. 363 

make an imposing appearance if they had been built up 
in the open plain ; but here they are so overshadowed by 
the mason-work of nature that they sink into insignifi- 
cance in comparison. The bank, some two hundred feet 
high, of solid rock, as it approaches the waterfall on 
either side, has the appearance of being supported by 
natural buttresses of basaltic columns — columns closely 
joined together and placed erect by the hand of nature's 
master-builder. Still, all would have been stiff and for- 
mal had the sides of the barranca been lined only with 
perpendicular columns ; but broken and displaced pillars 
are piled in every conceivable position against the front, 
while a vine with brilliant leaves had run to every fis- 
sure and spread itself out to enjoy the sunshine. The 
little stream that had burst its way through the upright 
columns and over the broken fragments, fell into a per- 
fect basin of basalt, heightening immensely the attrac- 
tions of the spot. I sat down upon a fallen column, and 
for a long time continued to contemplate the unexpected 
scene, of which, at that time, I had read nothing. There 
was such a mingling of the rich vegetation of the hot 
country with the rocky ornaments of this pretty water- 
fall that I could never grow weary of admiring the com- 
bined grandeur and beauty of the place, from which Pe- 
ter Terreros derived his title of Count of Regla. 

Peter Terreros, the first Count of Regla, became one 
of the rich men of the last century in consequence of a 
lucky mining adventure. In olden times the water in 
the Real del Monte mines had been lifted out of the 
mouth of the Santa Brigeda and other shafts in bulls' 
hides carried up on a windlass. When near the surface, 
this simple method of getting the water out of a mine 
has great advantages on account of its cheapness, and is 
now extensively employed in Mexican mines. But aft- 
er a certain depth had been reached, the head of water 



364 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

could no longer be kept down by this process, and, in 
consequence, the Real del Monte was abandoned about 
the beginning of the last century, and became a com- 
plete ruin ; for no wreck is more complete than that which 
water causes when it once gets possession of a mine, 
and mingles into one mass floating timbers, loosened 
earth, rubbish, and soft and fallen rock. By the min- 
ing laws of Mexico, the title to a mine is lost by aban- 
doning and ceasing to work it. It becomes a waif open 
to the enterprise of any one who may " re-denounce" it. 
The title to the soil in Mexico, as in California, carries 
no title to the gold and silver mineral that may be con- 
tained in the land. The precious metals are not only 
regarded in law as treasure-trove, but they carry with 
them to the lucky discoverer the right to enter upon an- 
other person's land, and to appropriate so much of the 
land as is necessary to avail himself of his prize. Col- 
onel Fremont's Mariposa claim, and all other California 
land claims, are subject to this legal condition. 

Peter Terreros, then a man of limited means, conceived 
the idea of draining this abandoned mine by means of a 
tunnel or adit (socabo?i) through the rock, one mile and 
a quarter in length, from the level of the stream till it 
should strike the Santa Brigeda shaft. Upon this en- 
terprise he toiled with varied success from 1750 until 
1762, when he completed his undertaking, and also struck 
a bonanza, which continued for twelve years to yield an 
amount of silver which in our day appears to be fabu- 
lous. The veins which he struck from time to time, as 
he advanced with his socabon, furnished means to keep 
alive his enterprise. When he reached the main shaft, 
he had a ruin to clear out and rebuild, which was a more 
costly undertaking than the building of a king's palace. 
Yet his bonanza not only furnished all the means for a 
system of lavish expenditure upon the mines and refin- 



PETER TERREROS. 365 

ing-works, but from his surplus profits he laid out half 
a million annually in the purchase of plantations, or six 
millions of dollars in the twelve years. This is equal to 
about 500,000 pounds' weight of silver. Besides doing 
this, he loaned to the king a million of dollars, which has 
never been paid, and built and equipped two ships of the 
line, and presented them to his sovereign. 

The humble shop-keeper, Peter Terreros, after such 
displays of munificence, was ennobled by the title of 
Count of Regla. Among the common people he is the sub- 
ject of more fables than was Croesus of old. When his 
children were baptized, so the story goes, the procession 
walked upon bars of silver. By way of expressing his 
gratitude for the title conferred upon him, he sent an in- 
vitation to the king to visit him at his mine, assuring 
his majesty that if he would confer on him such an ex- 
alted favor, his majesty's feet should not tread upon the 
ground while he was in the New World. Wherever he 
should alight from his carriage it should be upon a pave- 
ment of silver, and the places where he lodged should be 
lined with the same precious metal. Anecdotes of this 
kind are innumerable, which, of course, amount to no 
more than showing that in his own time his wealth was 
proverbial, and demonstrate that in popular estimation 
he stood at the head of that large class of miners whom 
the wise king ennobled as a reward for successful min- 
ing adventures, and that he was accounted the richest 
miner in the vice-kingdom. The state and magnificence 
which he oftentimes displayed surpassed that of the 
Vice-king. This in no way embarrassed an estate, the 
largest ever accumulated by one individual in a single 
enterprise. 

Count Peter is estimated to have expended two and 
a half millions of dollars upon the buildings constituting 
the refining establishment of Regla, which goes under 



366 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

the general designation of the patio. Why his walls 
were built so thick, or why so many massive arches 
should have been constructed, is an enigma to the pres- 
ent generation, as they could by no means have been 
intended for a fortress down in a barranca. 

But let us go in and examine the different methods of 
"benefiting" silver here applied. The ores from the 
Rosario shaft of the Hakal mine of Pachuca are here 
stamped and ground, and then thrown into a furnace, 
after having been mixed with lime, which in fire increases 
the heat ; while upon the open torta we shall see that 
lime is used to cool the mass. Litharge (oxide of lead) 
is added, and the mass is burned until the litharge is de- 
composed, the lead uniting with the silver and the oxy- 
gen entering into the slag, into which the baser metals, 
or scoria in the ore, have been formed. This is cast out 
at the bottom of the furnace. The mass of molten lead 
and silver is drawn off, and placed in a large oven with 
a rotary bottom, into which tongues of flame are contin- 
ually driven until the lead in the compound has become 
once more oxydized, forming litharge, and the silver is 
left in a pure state. This is the most simple method of 
purifying, or "benefiting" silver. 

A little beyond the furnace is a series of tubs, built 
of blocks from broken columns of basalt. In the centre 
of each revolves a shaft with four arms, to each of which 
is fastened a block of basalt, that is dragged on the 
stone bottom of the tub, where broken ore mixed with 
water is ground to the finest paste. Here the chemical 
process of "benefiting" commences. A bed is prepared 
upon the paved floor {patio) in the yard, in the same 
manner as a mortar bed is prepared to receive quick- 
lime dissolved in water. In the same way is poured 
out the semi-liquid paste. This is called a torta, and 
contains about 45,000 lbs. Upon this liquid mass four 



BENEFITING THE OEE. 367 

and a half cargas of 300 lbs. of salt is spread, and then 
a coating of blue vitriol (sulphate of copper) is laid over 
the whole, and the tramping by mules commences. If 
the mass is found to be too hot for the advantageous 
working of the process, then lime in sufficient quantities 
is added to cool it ; and if too cool, then iron pyrites 
(sulphate of iron) is added. The mules are then turned 
upon the bed, and for a single day it is mixed most 
thoroughly together by tramping and by turning it over 
by the shovel. On the second day 750 lbs. of quicksil- 
ver are added to the torta, and then the tramping is re- 
sumed. 

The most important personage, not even excepting 
the director, is called "the tester;" for the condition of 
the ores varies so much, that experience alone can de- 
termine the mode of proceeding with each separate torta, 
and upon the tester's judgment depends oftentimes the 
question whether a mining enterprise, involving millions 
of dollars, shall prove a profitable or unprofitable ad- 
venture. Perhaps he can not read or write, though daily 
engaged in carrying on, empirically, the most difficult 
of chemical processes. To him is intrusted the entire 
control of the most valuable article employed in mining 
— the quicksilver. He is constantly testing the various 
tortas spread out upon the patio / to one he determines 
that lime must be added ; to another, an opposite process 
must be applied by adding iron pyrites. When all is 
ready, with his own hands he applies the quicksilver, 
which he carries in a little cloth bag, through the pores 
of which he expresses the mercury as he walks over and 
over the torta, much after the manner that seed is sown 
with us. The tester determines when the silver has 
all been collected and amalgamated with the mercury. 
Whether the tramping process and the turning by shov- 
els shall continue for six weeks or for only three, is de- 



368 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

cided by him. When he decides that it is prepared for 
washing, the mass is transported to an immense wash- 
ing machine, which is propelled by water, where the 
base substances are all washed from the amalgam, and 
then the amalgam is resolved into its original elements 
of silver and quicksilver by fire, as already explained, 
with the loss of about seventy-five to one hundred pounds 
of mercury upon each torta. 

Let us now run over the many chemical processes 
that have been resorted to in order to separate the silver 
from the ore. The roll-brimstone, that has been pro- 
cured in Durango, or in the volcano of Popocatapetl, is 
bought up at the mint in the city of Mexico, where it is 
burned in a room lined with lead, and into which water 
is jetted until the smoke of the burning brimstone is con- 
densed. This water of sulphur is then carefully collect- 
ed, and distilled in a boiler of platinum, on which sulphur 
can not act. The sulphuric acid obtained by this distil- 
lation is used to separate the gold that is found in the sil- 
ver bars from silver. This sometimes amounts to ten 
per cent. The acid dissolves the silver, but does not 
act upon the gold, which is thus separated from the sil- 
ver. The sulphate of silver is drawn off and poured 
upon plates of copper, by which means the silver is pre- 
cipitated, and sulphate of copper, or blue vitriol, is pro- 
duced, which, not being of use in the mint, is sold to the 
Heal del Monte Company, where it is employed in ob- 
taining silver. The process by which the company obtain 
their salt has been already stated, while the lime they 
use is burned upon the mountains. After all these hard 
and laborious processes, only from five to ten per cent, of 
silver is obtained, except in cases of bonanzas, which 
shows that silver mines can be profitably worked only 
in those countries where labor commands the lowest 
standard of wages. 



THE HEIRS OF REGLA. 369 

The heirs of the Count Peter inherited his accumula- 
ted treasures, his purchased estates, his title, and his 
prospects of future success in mining, which were as 
brilliant as they had "been in his lifetime. They never 
dreamed of financial embarrassments in the midst of ac- 
cumulations of wealth which surpassed the wildest of 
Oriental romances. They forgot that their wealth rest- 
ed upon the perfect security which they inherited from 
the wise and virtuous government of Carlos III., of 
blessed memory ; that he it was who had put out the 
fires of the Inquisition, and so curtailed the power of 
the priests that they could no longer plunder with im- 
punity, or rob the Terreros of the fruits of their father's 
enterprise by threatening them with the censure of the 
Church, which, in the reign of a feeble king, had a sig- 
nificant meaning. The new code of mining laws, the 
cheapness of quicksilver, and the opening of commerce, 
had all combined to make their fortune, which they might 
lose in a moment if the heir to the throne should prove 
an idiot, as was most likely, and priests should again 
usurp the control of affairs, and play their old game of 
plundering the rich while they excited the populace. 

Fortunately for the family of Terreros and the many 
successful mining families of that period, Charles IY. was 
not quite so much of an idiot as his grandfather or his 
great-grandfather had been, and though the Inquisitors 
resumed their fires, yet it was with such comparative 
moderation as not to interfere seriously with the progress 
of that prosperity to which Carlos III. had given an im- 
pulse. The Countess of Regla still sported the richest 
jewels to be found in New Spain, and her sister's coronet 
was the envy of all the ladies of the court. But the in- 
surrection of Hidalgo came upon them in the midst of 
prosperity, overwhelming alike the rich and the poor. 
The large Spanish capitals began to be withdrawn from 



370 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

the country, the plantations were broken up, and the 
mines, abandoned by their laborers, soon fell to ruin ; 
and they who had been baptized in the midst of the most 
ostentatious display of wealth, found themselves pinched 
to sustain their ordinary expenses. 

The Terreros family kept their title good to the Real 
del Monte by retaining a few workmen about the prem- 
ises ; but it was substantially abandoned for twenty-five 
years before the English Real del Monte Company took 
possession. In the space of two years this company had 
cleared out and rebuilt the adit by working gangs of 
hands night and day. Another party, engaged upon the 
shafts, arrived at the adit level at the same time with the 
workmen upon the drain. A third party, engaged in 
making and repairing a carriage-road from the sea to the 
mine, had completed their labors ; while a fourth party, in 
charge of machinery and steam-power apparatus enough 
to equip a Cornish mine of the largest class, had arrived at 
the mine. In this fourfold, and much of it useless labor, 
the company had exhibited untiring activity, while they 
exhausted all their capital without realizing the return 
of a single dollar. But they derived rich hopes from 
reading the story of Peter Terreros, and they continued 
to hope on and hope ever, for a period of twenty-five 
years longer, when they ceased to exist. The story of 
this company is summed up in saying that they expend- 
ed upon this vast enterprise the sum of $20,000,000, and 
realized from it $16,000,000. They disposed of all their 
interests here for about what their materials were worth 
as old iron, and the present proprietors enjoy the fruits 
of their labors at a cost of less than a million of dollars, 
with a fair prospect of yet realizing from their specula- 
tion as large a treasure as that acquired by Peter Terre- 
ros, the first Count of Regla, 

Having thus described with some minuteness one of 



THE REAL DEL MONTE. 371 

the most extensive silver mines in the world, where an 
average of 5000 men and unnumbered animals are em- 
ployed, it will not be necessary to go into details as we 
notice the many other Celebrated mines of Mexico. 



CHAPTER XXXIII. 

Toluca. — Queretaro, Guanajuato, and Zacatecas. — Fresnillo. — "Ro- 
mancing." — A lucky Priest. — San Luis Potosi. — The Valenciana at 
Guanajuato. — Under-mining. — A Name of Blasphemy. — The Los 
Eayas. — Immense Sums taken from Los Rayas. — Warlike Indians in 
Zacatecas. 

A stage runs daily from the city of Mexico by Ta- 
cubaya and the Desierto to the beautiful valley and city 
of Toluca. This town is greatly indebted for its pres- 
ent celebrity to successful mining adventures. Its Ca- 
thedral is a monument of the munificent liberality of the 
Frenchman Laborde, whose fortune was ever unequal to 
his generosity. We have spoken already of the almost 
Oriental magnificence displayed in the famous garden 
which he built and adorned at Cuarnavaca. After spend- 
ing the wealth acquired from the bonanza of Tasco, he 
started off in search of new adventures and a new for- 
tune. Being again successful, he made Toluca the bene- 
ficiary of his princely liberality. The celebrated Cathe- 
dral of that city, and all its ornaments, are the proofs of 
his munificence. When his third fortune was exhaust- 
ed, the fickle goddess forsook him, and he who had three 
times been raised from nothing to the condition of a mill- 
ionaire, came in his old age to the archbishop for relief 
from his poverty. This relief he obtained by selling the 
jewels he had once bestowed upon the Church. Such 
often are the vicissitudes in the life of a successful miner. 
I can not notice here the many interesting objects gath- 
ered as I would wish to do, nor have I space for a de- 
scription of the beautiful mountain scenery about Toluca. 

The middle states of Mexico, Guanajuata, Zacatecas, 



MIDDLE STATES OF MEXICO. 373 

Durango, and San Luis, are deserving of a more ex- 
tended notice than m y limited space will permit. There 
is little of war or romance to recount in the history of 
any of them. Their story is made up of notices of silver 
mines, and times of great bonanzas and cattle-raising. 
Here the population is mostly white, made up of the 
hardy peasantry from Biscay. The Indians on the high 
table-lands were too hardy to be reduced to slavery: 
the result is the same here as in Chili. The two races 
have not extensively intermixed, as the Indians were 
driven northward, where, for a period of three hundred 
years, they have, in a measure, maintained their inde- 
pendence, and have so much improved in the art of war 
that they are able to return again and fight for the homes 
of their ancestors. The white inhabitants of these states 
are more cleanly in their habits, and more industrious 
than the Southern people. The little state of Queretaro 
has little to boast but its agriculture, but to the north 
of it is a country of mines and pasturage. 

There was formerly great rivalry between the states of 
Guanajuato and Zacatecas on the ground of their mining 
successes. Each in turn has had its season of boasting, 
for it has happened that, in those years when Guanajuato 
was most prosperous, Zacatecas was not in bonanza, 
and vice versa. When I was first in Mexico, San Luz 
and San Luce, at Guanajuato, were in bonanza, with di- 
vers others; and out of $300,000 in silver bars brought 
down to the city of Mexico, nearly ten per cent, of gold 
was extracted. But now both these bonanzas have given 
out, and the annual product of silver in the State of Gua- 
najuato has fallen off over $2,000,000, while the mines 
of Zacatecas are in a most flourishing condition, as is 
shown by the large sum of $1,200,000 being demanded 
by government for renewing the lease of the mint at Za- 
catecas. 



374 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

Fresnillo is the most flourishing of the mines of Zaca- 
tecas. This mine was formely considered of little value. 
Among its advantages is an American manager, who for 
many years has aided in the direction of its affairs. On 
my return from Mexico, I found the road up the Perote 
covered with wagons laden with portions of a monster 
steam-engine, the fifth that was to be employed to pump 
the water from this mine. It seems incredible that so 
large a sum as $1,000,000 should be required for the 
freight alone of this new machinery. But, after I had 
become familiar with the vast scale on which every thing 
is conducted at a large silver mine, where millions ap- 
pear as the small dust of the balance, I can credit what 
my readers might think improbable.* 

I have often spoken of the peculiarities of peasant life 
in the country and of the peons of the cities. But there 
is another phase of humble life to be considered — the so- 
cial state of the mine laborer. Like all men whose 
wages are very irregular, and subject to the fluctuations 
which follow mining speculations, they themselves be- 
come irregular in their lives. They have all heard of 
the many instances of persons of as humble condition as 
themselves accidentally falling upon a princely fortune, 
and they know, too, what a miraculous change such a 
discovery makes in the social condition of &_peo?i, for ev- 
ery miner in Zacatecas knows the homely distich : 

" Had the metals not been so rich at San Bernabe, 
Ibarra would not have wed the daughter of Virey."f 

In addition to scraps and snatches of songs, the min- 
ing laborers have their romances, which are as wild as 
the yarns of the sailor, and have for their almost univer- 

* By reference to a long and able paper on the mines in the hill of 
Proano (Fresnillo), it appears that one half of the cost of four pumping- 
engines already in operation in that mine was the freight from Vera 
Cruz to the mine. 

t This translation is bad enough, but no worse than the original. 



PADRE FLOKES. — CUATORCE. 375 

sal theme the miraculous acquisition and loss of a for- 
tune. The hero possesses princely wealth to clay, though 
yesterday he was suffering for food, and to-morrow he 
will be again bereft of all by the fickle turns that For- 
tune makes in the wheel of destiny. The wildest of our 
romances never come up to many incidents that have oc- 
curred in their own mine ; and when they attempt fic- 
tion, it is on the pattern of the Arabian Nights' Enter- 
tainments. I do verily believe that all that class of 
Arabian tales are but the reproduction of the romances 
from the Oriental gold-washings.. 

The most important mines in the State of San Luis 
Potosi are those near Cuatorce. In the midst of bleak 
and precipitous mountain ridges is the village of Cua- 
torce, from which a circuitous mountain road leads to 
the entrance of the mining shafts, in which more won- 
derful things have occurred than in the wildest of the 
"romances." The story of Padre Flores is a familiar 
one, but will bear repeating. 

The padre, being tired of the idle life of a pauper priest, 
bought, for a small sum, the claim of some still more 
needy adventurer. After following his small vein a lit- 
tle way, he came to a small cavern containing the ore in 
a state of decomposition. This, in California, would be 
called a "rotten vein." With all the difficulties to be 
encountered in obtaining a fair value for mineral in a 
crude state, the poor priest realized from his adventure 
over $3,000,000, which was considered a very fair for- 
tune for an unmitred ecclesiastic. 

The Mineral Report, mentioned in the last note, which 
is so full on the subject Fresnillo, insists that it is a con- 
tinuation of the formation of Cuatorce and the other mines 
of San Luis. The mountains at Cuatorce are more 
dreary, bleak, and barren than in any other of the prin- 
cipal mining districts, as it is more exposed to the storms 



376 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

and tempests from the northeast and from the ocean. 
It was in this State of San Luis Potosi that Dr. Gard- 
ner's quicksilver mine was alleged to exist, and in the 
ineffectual efforts made to determine its whereabouts 
our government has become quite familiar with the lo- 
cation of all the worked mines of this state. The mines 
upon the mountains of Cuatorce are said to have been dis- 
covered in 1778 by a negro fiddler, who, being compelled 
to camp out on his way home from a dance, built a fire 
upon what proved to be an outcrop of a vein, and, in 
consequence, found in the morning, among the embers, a 
piece of virgin silver. It is a doubtful question among 
those who are anxious about trifles whether the name 
Potosi given to this mine, owes its origin to the similar- 
ity between the mode of its discovery to that of the cel- 
ebrated mines of that name in South America, or to the 
vast amount of silver at one time taken from it. 

Guanajuato, when it yielded its six millions a year of 
silver, besides a fair supply of gold, was one of the most 
important States in the republic. With every success- 
ful speculation, new adventurers were found to invest 
their capital in resuming the working of abandoned 
mines, until at last men have become bold enough to un- 
dertake, for the third time, the draining of the great shaft 
of the Valenciana, so famous in the last century. When 
I was last in Mexico that undertaking was reported to 
have been accomplished. This mine is on a more mag- 
nificent scale than even the Heal del Monte. Its cen- 
tral shaft alone cost a million of dollars ; and though 
steam power can not be used, yet it is so dry that horse 
windlasses can keep it clear of water. Its abandonment 
in every instance has been in consequence of some insur- 
rectionary chief setting the works of the mine on fire, and 
not from any deficiency in its product of silver. When I 
was in Mexico, so little progress had been made in re- 



THE MINE OF LOS RAYAS. 377 

storing the mine that it was not thought worth visiting. 
But the most sanguine hopes were entertained that it 
would again he as productive as in the times when its 
abundant riches secured for its owner the title of Mar- 
quis of Valenciana, though he had worked with his own 
hands on the shaft which afterward yielded him its 
millions. 

Second in importance among the old mines of Guana- 
juato is Los Itayas. Its history presents a new feature 
in the mining system of Mexico, not before mentioned, 
but which is important to a right understanding of the 
operation of the mining code. The right of discovery 
gives title to two hundred varas along the mine, and to 
two hundred varas (about 500 feet) in depth. The con- 
sequence of this limitation is, that when a very rich claim 
is made, there immediately springs up a contest to get 
below it, and to cut off the lucky discoverer from the low- 
er part of his expected fortune, and he has no means of 
avoiding such a result but by driving his shaft down- 
ward until he reaches a point below his first two hund- 
red varas, which entitles him to claim another section 
downward. 

This principle is strikingly illustrated in the case of 
the famous mine of the priest Flores at Cuatorce, which 
he blasphemously named "the Purse of God the Fa- 
ther,"* where there are marks of divers attempts being 

* This will sound to Protestant readers something like horrible blas- 
phemy ; but it must be borne in mind that God the Father of the Cath- 
olics is an entirely different idea from the spiritual God whom we wor- 
ship. The devout Protestant who recognizes but one Being worthy of 
adoration, veneration, and worship, never ventures to mention any of 
the names by which He is known but with the profoundest reverence. 
The Catholic, on the other hand, has a host of objects which he deems 
worthy of adoration, and seems to have cheapened the article by multi- 
plying it. His senses are all exercised in his peculiar kind of worship, 
and, as a natural consequence, they are apt to conclude that the Al- 
mighty enjoys those exhibitions that give them the greatest pleasure. 



378 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

made to undermine Mm, though without success. But 
the case is a different one when the bonanza is upon a 
high ridge, and it can be undermined by drifting in from 
a lower level. Then commences a lively contest to de- 
termine who can dig the fastest, and make the most rap- 
id progress in this contest of mining and countermining. 
The Marquis de los Rayas owes his title and his prince- 
ly fortune of $11,000,000 to a successful contest of this 
character. The Santa Amita was in bonanza, yielding 
an ore so pregnant with gold that the crude mass often 
sold for its weight in silver. 

They worship him by performing a pantomime of the life and suffering 
of Christ, which is called the mass, and seek to propitiate him by offer- 
ing the body of his Son in sacrifice. They bestow upon God gifts of 
jewels and of gold ; and as he passes through their streets in the form 
of a wafer, as they believe, the soldiers present arms, beat the drum, 
and discharge their cannon, as to an earthly prince. Though our Sav- 
iour (Santo Christo) heads the calendar of intercessors between God and 
man, he is seldom invoked, though they often honor him by naming 
their children after him. As they have conferred upon a multitude of 
their saints the supernatural powers of God, they have necessarily 
brought God himself down to earth. If I might be pardoned the ex- 
pression, I should say that they treat him and his well-beloved Son with 
a loving intimacy. The worship of the Catholics is substantially mate- 
rialism, more or less gross, according to its distance from or its proxim- 
ity to Protestantism. There is no blasphemy, according to their system, 
in naming their shops after the Holy Ghost, a horse-stable after "the 
Precious Blood," though I could never hear them mentioned or see them 
without having my Protestant notions shocked, while I equally shocked 
their feelings by refusing to kneel to the Host, and slipping out of the 
way to avoid it. Nor could I exhibit the least reverence to their relig- 
ious emblems without committing what in me would be an act of idol- 
atry, the two systems being so diametrically opposite that one can 
not go a step toward the other without bi-eaking over a fundamental doc- 
trine of his own belief. God is an invisible Spirit, says the Protestant. 
God is a Spirit, answers the Catholic, but he daily assumes the form of 
a wafer, and traverses our streets, and in that foi*m we most commonly 
worship him. Such is the religious antagonism that will ever be found 
in the world while man remains what he now is, ever divided between 
mentalism and materialism. Forms and names often differ, but these 
are the two ideas into which all the religious systems of the world re- 
solve themselves, although abortive attempts are often made to com- 
bine them. 



DEEP MINING. 379 

Contests of this kind are very different from those 
which used to take place in California some years ago, 
when twenty feet square was marked off upon the top 
of a ridge, through which the claimant had to sink his 
shaft to the base rock on which the gold was supposed 
to he deposited. When the rock was reached, it was 
often found difficult to keep the lines that had been mark- 
ed off on the surface, particularly when the lead grew 
richer as it approached the border of the claim. Con- 
troversies were frequent, and frequently resulted in sub- 
terranean quarrels and fights, and, of course, ended in 
superterranean lawsuits. But the Mexican rival parties 
were seldom near enough for a hght, and the quarrel 
ended, as it began, in a contest to determine who could 
dig the fastest. 

Another peculiar feature of deep mining is the con- 
struction of the main shafts. A description of the meth- 
od of construction of one of these I take from Ward's 
Mexico,* a book that is otherwise of little value to a per- 
son seeking for information on the subject of mines at 
Guanajuata, so great has been the revolution there in a 
few years in the condition of mining affairs : "I know 
few sights more interesting than the operation of blast- 
ing in the shafts of Los Hayas. After each quarryman 
(barretero) has undermined the portion of rock allotted 
to him, he is drawn up to the surface ; the ropes belong- 
ing to the horse-windlasses (malacates) are coiled up, so 
as to leave every thing clear below, and a man descends, 
whose business it is to fire the slow matches communi- 
cating with the mines below. 

" As his chance of escaping the effects of the explo- 
sion consists in being drawn up with such rapidity as to 
be placed beyond the reach of the fragments of rock that 
are projected into the air, the lightest malacate is pre- 
* Vol. ii. p. 452. 



380 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

pared for his use, and two horses are attached to it, se- 
lected for their swiftness and courage, and are called 
the horses of pegador. The man is let down slowly, 
carrying with him a light and a small rope, one end of 
which is held by one of the overseers, who is stationed 
at the mouth of the shaft. A breathless silence is ob- 
served until the signal is given from below by pulling 
the cord of communication, when the two men by whom 
the horses are previously held release their heads, and 
they dash off at full speed until they are stopped either 
by the noise of the first explosion, or by seeing from the 
quantity of cord wound round the cylinder of the mala- 
cate that the pegado?* is already raised to a height of 
sixty or seventy varas [Spanish yards], and is conse- 
quently beyond the reach of danger." 

The author then goes on to enumerate the risks that 
attend this calling of jiegador, and the consequent high 
wages that have to be paid to persons who undertake 
this perilous office, all of which accidents and adventures 
must be familiar to those of my readers who have paid 
any attention to the business of blasting rocks ; and as 
his hairbreadth escapes have nothing in them remark- 
able, we may conclude this notice of Los Rayas by add- 
ing his statement that the king's fifth from this mine, 
from 1556 to his time, amounted to the snug sum of 
$17,365,000. He gives only the sum reported, and 
makes no calculation for the large sums out of which the 
king was annually cheated at all the mines. That my 
reader may understand how a sum so apparently incredi- 
ble as five or eight times seventeen millions of dollars 
could be taken out of a single mine, he must recollect 
that Los Rayas was a most productive mine shortly after 
the Conquest, and that for a century or two it was com- 
paratively of little value, until Mr. Jose Sardaneta under- 
took the undermining of the rich mine of Santa Amita 



INDIANS AND SOLDIERS. 381 

in 1740, and that afterward the rich product of the low- 
er levels of the Santa Amita are included in this immense 
sum. 

There is too much sameness in the details of the his- 
tories of the various other important mines of this State 
and of those in the adjoining State of Durango to jus- 
tify the lengthening out this chapter, and I will conclude 
it with giving the substance of a statement I heard the 
American gentleman make on the subject of Indian dep- 
redations in the very centre of the republic, showing 
the great inconvenience suffered in consequence of the 
state of insecurity in which the people constantly live. 
A party of their own Indians, a most degraded band of 
cowardly vagabonds, that lived not a great way from the 
city, concluded to personify a company of northern sav- 
ages, in order more successfully to plunder the inhabit- 
ants. With shoutings, these vagabonds rushed into the 
houses of the people, who were so paralyzed by the very 
sight of Indians in a hostile attitude, that, without re- 
sistance, they suffered them to plunder whatever came 
within their reach which tempted their cupidity or lust. 
At length, becoming satiated with liquor and champagne 
that they had taken from a carrier, they had to retire 
and camp out for the night. In their retreat they were 
pursued by a captain and soldiers of the regular army, 
who, being more numerous than the Indians, exhibited a 
great deal of courage until they came in sight of the sav- 
ages, when, all at once, it was concluded to encamp for 
the night, and to resume the pursuit the next day, when 
the Indians would be at such a distance that they would 
not disturb their pursuers by their whooping. 



CHAPTER XXXIV. 

Sonora and Sonora Land Speculators seeking Annexation. — Sonora 
and its Attractions. — The Abundance and Purity of Silver in Sono- 
ra. — Silver found in large Masses. — The Jesus Maria, Refugio, and 
Eulalia Mines. — A Creation of Silver at Arizpa. — The Pacific Rail- 
road. — Sonora now valueless for want of personal Security. — The 
Hopes of replenishing the Spanish Finances from Sonora blasted by 
War. — Report of the Mineria. — Sonora. — Chihuahua. 

It has "been said in another chapter that the Apaches 
had extended their depredations beyond the first tier of 
States, and had entered Durango, Zacatecas, San Luis 
Potosi, and even Guanajuato, making this second tier 
of states their stamping ground, while Sonora, Chihua- 
hua, Coahuila, over which they now rode without oppo- 
sition to a country more abundant in plunder, are left as 
political waifs to any who may choose to take possession 
of them. As in all abandoned countries, there are in- 
habitants here incapable of getting away, and too poor 
even for the Indians to notice ; and there are a few mis- 
erable villages still existing, with a fragment of their 
former population. All the inhabitants of these wretch- 
ed hamlets have their eyes fixed on the United States 
as the only hope of relief from their Indian plunderers. 
The proprietors of estates, extending over vast districts, 
too cowardly to defend their claims, which exceed in ex- 
tent European principalities, are sitting quietly down at 
a respectful distance, anxiously looking forward to the 
time when their claims will rise in value from a few dol- 
lars to as many hundred thousands by an annexation to 
the United States. Mexican operators in grants have 
not been idle. They have ascertained what the United 



LAND TITLES. 383 

States courts call a title, and have been providing them- 
selves with the necessary parchments,* while American 
operators, in connection with them, have been equally 
busy. 

Chihuahua and Sonora are the States or Departments 
to be affected by our Pacific Railroad. Sonora is the 
most valuable of the two, not only on account of its in- 
exhaustible supply of silver, but also on account of its 
delightful climate and agricultural resources. It is like 
the land of the blessed in Oriental story. California 
does not surpass it in fertility or in climate. With in- 
dustry and thrift, it could sustain a population equal to 
that of all Mexico. The table-lands and the valleys are 
so near together that the products of all climates flour- 
ish almost side by side. Food for man and beast was so 
easily procured that the descendants of the early settlers 
sunk into effeminacy long before the breaking out of the 
great Apache war of the last century. Drought, how- 
ever, makes the formation of artificial lakes and reser- 
voirs necessary to the full development of its agricultu- 
ral wealth. 

But it is the remarkable abundance of silver which 
distinguishes it above all other countries except Chihua- 
hua. I have described, in a former chapter, the long 
and laborious processes by which silver is produced from 
the ore in the southern mines, and also the great depths 

* When I was first at the city of Mexico, Governor Letcher intro- 
duced to me a son of the late emperor, who had a claim for land in 
California which he had not located before the annexation. I advised 
him, without a fee, that our courts did not recognize foreign "floats," 
and that, by his own laches, he had lost his claim, which he now spread 
along the Sacramento River for 400 miles. Finding out, after an ex- 
penditure of several thousand dollars, the defect, he got a new claim 
from the late President Lombardini of thirty miles square, which he will 
probably now pin tight in Sonora. The defect of our two last treaties 
with Mexico was in not having a clause inserted reducing all titles to 
land to six miles square, as a consideration for the enhanced value by 
the annexation. 



384 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

from which it is raised. In Sonora, silver is most com- 
monly extracted from the ore by the simple process of 
fusion. But in the district of Batopilos, it is, or rather 
was, found pure. If we should adopt the theory that 
veins of ore extend through the entire length of Mexico, 
then I should say that they "crop out" in Sonora, or, 
rather, that the silver lodes which are here above the 
surface dip toward the city of Mexico, and also north- 
ward toward California. The mountain chain which 
traverses California under the name of the Sierra Ne- 
vada appears to be only a continuation or reappearance 
of the mountain chain here called Sierra Madre (Moth- 
er Bange), which forms the boundary between the de- 
partments of Sonora and Chihuahua. 

On the western declivity of this mountain range, the 
most remarkable illustration of this fact of cropping out 
is found at Batopilos, already mentioned. This town is 
in a deep ravine. The climate is, like that of the Cali- 
fornia gulches, intensely hot, but remarkably healthy. 
Here the lodes of silver ore are almost innumerable,* with 
crests elevated above the ground. The mine of El Car- 
men, in the times of the vice-kings, produced so immense- 
ly that its proprietor was ennobled, with the title of Mar- 
quis of Bustamente. This was the beginning of the 
family of Bustamente. A piece of pure silver was found 
here weighing four hundred and twenty-five pounds. I 
should like to continue in detail to enumerate the rich 
surface mines in the southern portions of these two States, 
but, lest I should weary my reader, I must omit them, 

* I would not like to make such extravagant statements on my own 
authority, however satisfactory the testimony might be to myself, for 
the abundance of silver in Sonora is beyond the belief of most men. 
But, fortunately, I have, in Ward's " Mexico," an authority that can 
not be disputed. The work is accessible to all my readers. The au- 
thor was charged by the British government with an examination of 
the mines of Mexico. 



CHIHUAHUA AND SONOEA. 385 

and refer those who wish to learn more to the transla- 
tions from the last official reports of the Mineria, enti- 
tled Chihuahua and Sonora, which are embodied in the 
Appendix. 

" The ' Good Success Mine' (Bueno Successo) was 
discovered by an Indian, who swam across the river aft- 
er a great flood. On arriving at the other side, he found 
the crest of an immense lode laid bare by the force of 
the water. The greater part of this was pure massive 
silver, sparkling in the rays of the sun. The whole town 
of Batopilos went to gaze at the extraordinary sight as 
soon as the river was fordable. This Indian extracted 
great wealth from his mine, but, on coming to the depth 
of three Spanish yards (varas), the abundance of water 
obliged him to abandon it, and no attempts have since 
been made to resume the working. When the silver is 
not found in solid masses, which requires to be cut with 
the chisel, it is generally finely sprinkled through the 
lode, and often serves to nail together the particles of 
stone through which it is disseminated."* — "The ores 
of the Pastiano mine, near the Carmen, were so rich 
that the lode was worked by bars, with a point at one 
end and a chisel at the other, for cutting out the silver. 
The owner of the Pastiano used to bring the ores from 
the mine with flags flying, and the mules adorned with 
cloths of all colors. The same man received a reproof 
from the Bishop of Durango when he visited Batopilos 
for placing bars of silver from the door of his house to 
the great hall (said) for the bishop to walk upon."f 

The next mine of interest in our progress northward 
is the Morelos, "which was discovered in 1826 by two 
brothers named Aranco. These two Indian peons were 
so poor that, the night before their great discovery, the 
keeper of the store had refused to credit one of them for 

* Ward, vol. ii. p. 578. f Ibid. 

R 



386 MEXICO AND ITS RELIGION. 

a little corn for his tortillas. They extracted from their 
claim $270,000; yet, in December, 1826, they were still 
living in a wretched hovel, close to the source of their 
wealth, bare-headed and bare-legged, with upward of 
$200,000 in silver locked up in their hut. But never 
was the utter worthlessness of the metal, as such, so 
clearly demonstrated as in the case of the Arancos, 
whose only pleasure consisted in contemplating their 
hoards, and occasionally throwing away a portion of the 
richest ore to be scrambled for by their former compan- 
ions, the workmen." 

Near the Morelos is the Jesus Maria. Though on 
the western or Sonora slope of the mountain, it is only 
eight leagues from Chihuahua. This, like Morelos, is a 
modern discovery, and, of course, was not included in the 
number of those Sonora mines which produced such an 
intense excitement about a hundred years ago in Mexi- 
co, and even in Spain. Here, within the circuit of three 
leagues, two hundred metallic lodes were registered in one 
year. The story of the mine of El Refugio, discover- 
ed by a fellow of the name of Pacheco, gave occasion for 
anecdotes like those of the Arancos which we have just 
recited. A dealer had an old cloak which took the fancy 
of Pacheco, and to purchase this thing he gave ore from 
which the dealer realized $8000. Three twenty-fourths 
(three bars) of the product of this mine netted, between 
the years 1811 and 1814, $337,000. On the Sonora 
side of the mountain is Santa Eulalia. The ores of 
this real [district] are found in loose earth, filling im- 
mense caverns, or what are called "rotten ores" in Cali- 
fornia, and are easily separated by smelting. One shil- 
ling a mark ($8) was laid aside from the silver which one 
of these caverns produced, which shilling contribution 
constituted the fund out of which the magnificent Cathe^ 
dral of Chihuahua was built. 



THE MINE OF ARAZUMA. 387 

Proceeding northward, we come to a spot the most 
famous in the world for its product of silver, the mine 
of Arazuma. For near a century, the accounts of the 
wealth of this mine were considered fabulous ; but their 
literal truth is confirmed by the testimony of the English 
embassador. After examining the old records which I 
have quoted, I have no doubt that the facts surpassed 
the astonishing report ; for in Mexico, the propensity 
has ever been to conceal rather than over-estimate the 
quantity of silver, on account of the king's fifth ; yet it 
is the king's fifth, actually jtaid, on which all the esti- 
mates of the production of Sonora silver mines are based. 
Arazuma (which, in the report of the Mineria that I have 
translated for this volume, appears to be set down as 
Arizpa) was, a hundred years ago, the world's wonder, 
and so continued until the breaking out of the great 
Apache war a few years afterward. Men seemed to run 
mad at the sight of such immense masses of virgin sil- 
ver, and for a time it seemed as if silver was about to 
lose its value. In the midst of the excitement, a royal 
ordinance appeared, declaring Arazuma a "creation of sil- 
ver" (creador dej?lata), and appropriating it to the king's 
use. This put a stop to private enterprise ; and, after 
the Indian war set in, Arazuma became almost a forgot- 
ten locality ; and in a generation or two afterward, the 
accounts of its mineral riches began to be discredited. 

We have the following record in evidence of the mass- 
es of silver extracted at Arazuma. Don Domingo As- 
mendi paid duties on a piece of virgin silver which weigh- 
ed 275 lbs. The king's attorney {fiscal) brought suit 
for the duties on several other pieces, which together 
weighed 4033 lbs. Also for the recovery, as a curiosity, 
and therefore the property of the king, of a certain piece 
of silver of the weight of 2700 lbs. This is probably the 
largest piece of pure silver ever found in the world, and 



388 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

yet it was discovered only a few miles distant from the 
contemplated track of our Pacific Railroad. 

I might continue enumerating the instances of min- 
eral wealth brought to light in these two states, Sonora 
and Chihuahua, if I supposed it would be interesting to 
my readers ; but as they have heard enough of silver, I 
may add that rich deposits of gold were found at Molat- 
to in 1806, and a still greater discovery of gold was 
made a few years ago. In this latter discovery, the poor 
diggers suffered so much from thirst that a dollar was 
readily paid for a single bucket of water, and at length, 
by reason of the drought, this rich placer had to be 
abandoned. 

Such is Sonora, a region of country which combines 
the rare attractions of the richest silver mines in the 
world, lying in the midst of the finest agricultural dis- 
tricts, and where the climate is as attractive as its min- 
eral riches. But its richest mineral district is near its 
northern frontier, and is almost inaccessible, and can nev- 
er be advantageously worked without an abundant sup- 
ply of mineral coal for smelting ; nor can any of its mines 
or estates be successfully worked without greater secur- 
ity for life and property than at present exists. The 
capitalists of Mexico will not invest their means in de- 
veloping the resources of Sonora, and in consequence, 
the finest country in the world is fast receding to a state 
of nature. I found in the Palace at Mexico a copy of 
the last report of the Governor of Sonora upon the state 
of his Department, in which he mentions, among many 
other causes of its decadence during the last few years, 
the extensive emigration of its laboring population to 
California. 

Extravagant as are these statements of the mineral 
riches of Sonora, they probably do not come up to the 
reality, as the largest of them are founded on the sums 



FUTUEE OF SONOEA. 389 

reported for taxation at the distant city of Mexico, when 
it was notorious, as already stated, that a large portion 
of the silver was fraudulently concealed in order to avoid 
the taxes. Such concealment could be successfully car- 
ried on in a region so distant and inaccessible as Sonora 
was in the time of Philip V., for it was in the reign of 
that idiot king, before the liberal mining-ordinances of 
Carlos III., that the Sonora mining-fever broke out. 

A hundred years have passed since the once formidable 
Apaches swept over northern Sonora like a deluge, blot- 
ting out forever the hopes which the Spanish court had 
conceived of retrieving the fallen finances of their em- 
pire from this El Dorado. But Providence had ordered 
it otherwise. The Spaniards had done enough to dem- 
onstrate its inexhaustible wealth, and then they were 
driven away from this " creation of silver,"* and the whole 
deposit held for a hundred years in reserve for the uses 
of another race, who were destined to overrun the conti- 
nent. 

I should have but half performed my task should I 
omit to speak of the excellent bay and harbor of Guay- 
mas, in the southern part of Sonora. After San Fran- 
cisco, it is the finest harbor on the Pacific, and is the nat- 
ural route through which our commerce with the East 
Indies should be directed. The long experience of Spain 
taught her that a western route to the East Indies was so 
much superior to the one by the Cape of Good Hope as 
to compensate for a transhipment of all of her East In- 
dia merchandise upon mules' backs from Acapulco to 
Vera Cruz. Much more advantageous must it be to us, 
when a railroad from El Paso, passing through the midst 



* I do not know exactly how to translate the Spanish idea attached 
to the words creador de plata unless by saying that it is a spot where ba- 
ser substances are supposed to be converted into silver by some unknown 
process of nature. 



390 MEXICO AND ITS KELIGION. 

of the silver district I have described, shall transfer our 
commerce with Japan and China to the Pacific side of 
our continent. Here the very silver necessary for the 
purchase of tea is nearly as abundant as tin in some of 
the European mines, and, as in California, the prospects 
held out to the farmer are equal to mineral attractions. 

It would be folly for our government to acquire So- 
nora without first providing for connecting it with our 
country by railroad, and equally foolish to acquire it 
without making provision, in the treaty of acquisition, 
for reducing all land-titles to the size of a single town- 
ship, in consideration for the superior value given to the 
property by the annexation, and for annulling all land- 
titles under which there is not an actual occupancy. 
The Spanish courts concede to government this power 
over private rights, and for this reason a treaty of acqui- 
sition from Mexico would prevent the confusion that now 
exists in California, and enable American settlers to lo- 
cate understandingly at once. All titles should con- 
tinue to be subject, as they now are, to the right of the 
miner to enter in search of precious metals, thus no con- 
flicts in relation to the rights of land-owners and miners 
could arise. The principle on which the Mexican min- 
ing laws and the California mining customs are estab- 
lished should be recognized by the United States. But 
that right of entry would not arise until the construction 
of a railroad should afford the means of actually reduc- 
ing the country to possession, which Spain never has ac- 
complished, and Mexico never can accomplish. 



APPENDIX. 

A. 

MINERIA REPORT ON THE MINERAL RICHES OF SONORA. 

Among the five-and-twenty states and territories that 
compose the Mexican confederation, there is no other which 
contains in its respective territory the like wonderful min- 
eral riches which abound in the state of which we treat. 
This would appear almost fabulous ; but there is proof 
enough from the testimony of many residents of that state, 
and from the assertion of travelers, from the evidences 
which the archives of the various missions exhibit, and from 
the royal registry of mines {reales de minas), and, lastly, from 
the indubitable fact of the production of great quantities of 
gold and silver from the mines and placers of this state, con- 
sidering the small amount of forces, and its isolation from 
all the principal settlements of the republic by reason of the 
distance which separates it from them. 

In fact, many metals of universal estimation, such as gold, 
silver, mercury, copper, and iron, in a pure state, in grains, 
in masses, or in dust, as well as mixed with other metals, 
superficially or in veins, are found in the extensive territory 
of Sonora ; lead, or combinations of lead, for aiding in ex- 
tracting metals by fire, and for the construction of munitions 
of war, amianthus or incombustible crystal, divers ores of 
copperas, exquisite marble, alabaster, and jasper of various 
colors, as well as quarries of stone of chrispa and magnetic 
stones, muriate and carbonate of soda, saltpetre or nitrate of 
potassa, are, in enumeration, the mineral productions which 
are found in abundance in the territory of the state of So- 



392 APPENDIX. 

nora, which comprehends the region from the river of Fort 
Monte Clarasal at the south to the Gila at the north, and 
from the Sierra Madre at the east to the Colorado at the 
northwest. 

To the disgrace of the nation, these authentic and exact 
notices of the marvelous riches of this remote state have 
availed nothing in determining speculators (empresarios) to 
resort to those places in pursuit of a fortune so certain, or at 
least to have avoided, by the means of colonization, the loss 
which is feared of this inestimable jewel. 

The territory of the state of Sonora lacks nothing but se- 
curity [from incursions of Indians] in order that the hand of 
man may be profusely recompensed for his labor. Virgin 
soils, where the agricultural fruits of all climates not only 
flourish, but many of these improve in quality ; navigable 
rivers, which contribute in part to the easy transportation of 
the products to the ports of the Pacific for exportation and 
consumption ; mines and placers of precious metals, in many 
of which there is no necessity of capital to explore and col- 
lect them — are not these stimulants enough to attract there 
a population thrifty and civilized ? In order to ascertain 
the mineral riches which the nation may lose in a short 
time, we call attention to the mineral statistics which follow, 
although they are imperfect and diminutive. 

As already we have said, the whole of Sonora is mineral ; 
but as among us we only give this name to those places in 
which there have been discovered and worked a conjunction 
of veins, it results that the places in this state to which for 
this cause has been given the name of mineral are thirty- 
four. Some of the mines are amparadas [viz., worked suffi- 
cient to confer a legal title to the occupant], and are imper- 
fectly in a state of operation. The names of all of these two 
classes, which are sixteen in all, are Hermosillo, San Javier, 
Subiate, Vayoreca, Alamas, Babicanara, Batuco, La Alame- 
da, Bio Chico, El Aguaja, Aigame, El Luaque, Saguaripa, 
La Trinidad, San Antonio, and El Zoni. 

The remaining eighteen are found abandoned, some for 
the want of water, and others for the want of laborers or 



APPENDIX. 393 

capital, and by the fear which the barbarous Indians in- 
spire. The names of these last minerals are San Juan de 
Sonora, that of the Sierra at the northwest of Guaymas, Ari- 
zuma, Bacauchi, Antunes, San Jose de Gracia, El Gavilau, 
San lldefonso de la Cienequilla, San Francisco el Calou, 
Santa Rosa, San Antonio de la Huenta, Vadoseco Sobia, Mu- 
latos, Basura, Alamo-Muerto, and San Perfecto. 

In the same state have been discovered twenty-one pla- 
cers ; of these, one is of virgin silver, in grains and plates 
(planchas), and twenty of pure gold, in grains and dust ; but 
as nearly all these are situated in the mineral districts {min- 
erales) already mentioned, the names of those which are not 
given are the following : Agua Caliente, Q,uitovac, Las Pa- 
lomas, La Canaca, and Totahiqui. With the exception of 
three, to which gold-hunters from time to time resort to re- 
lieve their necessities, all the others remain abandoned. 

There was only one mineral district actually in work at 
the close of the last century and the beginning of the pres- 
ent; those now actually in process of being worked are 
fourteen, and their names are La Grande, La Gluintera, El 
Subiate, Bulbaucda Europita, Vayoreca, La Cotera, Santo Do- 
<mingo, JNToercheran, La Sibertao, Minas-Nuevas, El Tajo, 
Minas Prietas, and another near La Grande. 

From the mineral districts (minerales) abandoned there 
ought to be inferred an increased number of mines, which 
are in the same condition, but we do not know their names, 
and we have only notices of the twenty following : Pimas, 
La Tarasca, Ubalama, Ojito de San Roman, Yaquis, La 
Guerjta, Noaguila, Las Animas, Afuerenos, Piedras-verdes 
JNTavares, La Calera, Caugrejos, Guillarmena, San Atilano, 
San Teodoro, and El Gavilau. In those in Pinas, and in one 
of those of the mineral of San Jose de Gracia, have been 
found considerable amounts of pure silver deposited in their 
veins, and mineral taken from San Teodoro has produced 
one half silver. In extracting the silver from the ore in this 
place, we ought to mention that the greater part of these 
mines are susceptible of great bonanzas, from not having 
been worked extensively, as their proprietors abandoned 

E2 



394 APPENDIX. 

them when the metals failed to appear upon the surface, 
and when the exploration was a little more costly. 

There are eleven haciendas in the State of Sonora for pu- 
rifying the metals which the mines and placers produce, 
without taking into the account many little establishments, 
with from two to five horse-mills, with one bad furnace for 
the fusion of metals. Three of these are situated in Alamas, 
five in Aduana, one in Promontorio, another in Tatagiosa, 
and the last in Minas Nuevas (New Mines). There are 
many abandoned mines, as the rubbish and ruins indicate, 
which we have noticed, in all the abandoned mineral dis- 
tricts. 

The methods which they have observed in extracting the 
metals from the ore are the patio [by application of quick- 
silver in an open yard], and that of fusion, with the aid of 
some metals that assist the fusion ; but from the fact that 
the quicksilver augments considerably the price, the few that 
there carry on the business have preferred the process of fu- 
sion to that of the patio, from being less costly, and because 
the docility of the metals afford facilities to this process. 

No machines of new invention have been introduced into 
that state, either for the drainage of the mines or for facili- 
tating the extracting of the metals. This ought not to sur- 
prise us, in places so desert and distant from the metropolis, 
unaccustomed to the vivifying movements of commerce, and 
to the necessities which civilization has engendered in the 
more important populations in the central parts of the re- 
public. That which is rare, and ought to call attention, is 
the exception of some mines, where malacatos [water-sacks 
of bull-hides, drawn up by a windlass] are used for dis- 
charging water. In almost all those which have thus been 
worked, they have not had an opportunity to exhibit their 
riches, as the abundance of water in many of them was 
the principal cause of their abandonment. 

The greatest difficulty in the way of giving an exact idea 
of the products of the mines and placers of Sonora is the 
scandalous contraband exportations of gold and silver which 
are made from the ports of the Sea of Corte'z [Gulf of Cali- 



APPENDIX. 395 

fornia] on the one hand, and, on the other, the difficulties that 
have presented themselves to his Excellency, the Governor 
of that state, for giving the statistical notices which have 
been sought on repeated occasions by the Junta of the Mi- 
neria, both of which causes have made difficult the account 
which we furnish ; but by those which they themselves fur- 
nished of the production of those minerals before and since 
the independence of the nation, and by the exhibits of vari- 
ous witnesses presented in the remission of bars which from 
thence they made to the capital of the republic, when the 
ports of the Pacific were sealed to foreign commerce, the 
production of precious metals having yielded in divers epochs 
not far from 4500 pounds of silver, without considering the 
gold (abundant enough in placers and in rivers), and from 
what is known, the quantities of this metal extracted have 
been considerable, and in more abundance than in the min- 
eral districts of the other states of the republic. 

Attention having been much called to the ley and weight 
of the grains of pure gold found on the surface in Gluitovac, 
Cienequilla, and San Francisco, as well as those masses of 
virgin silver found in Arizuma, which wonderful riches stim- 
ulated the colonial government to despoil the proprietors of 
it, and afterward the King of Spain, in declaring that it per- 
tained to his royal patrimony. 

All those places in Sonora which are actually abandoned, 
as well as all the lands of that state, are susceptible of pro- 
ducing great riches. The reasons on which these assertions 
are founded are those which M. Saint Clair Duport mentions 
in speaking of the probable variation there will be in value 
of gold and silver in time, by reason of the great extractions 
hereafter of these metals, particularly in California [this was 
before the annexation of California] and Sonora, where, as 
in the Ural Mountains, and the Altai Mountains of Central 
Asia, gold is extremely abundant, and because in the placers 
mentioned explorers have recognized gold in dust, which 
they have not washed for want of water in some, and from 
the difficulty that exists in others in order to work them, 
such as those of Arizuma and La Papagueria. 



396 APPENDIX. 

Nothing could be said in relation to the number of opera- 
tives who are employed in working the mines of this state, 
nor the day-laborers ; nor in respect to articles consumed 
there, as well in the digging of the metals as in extracting 
them from the ores, because, as has already been said, his 
Excellency the Governor has not been able to give the no- 
tices which have been sought, and there are no other better 
authorities through whom information can be procured. For 
in this state there are no mining courts,* but the ordinary 
judges of first instance are the authorities which take cog- 
nizance of matters which occur in the department of the 
Mineria. 

There are no companies for the exploration of the mines 
in that remote state. Some inhabitants, in distant periods, 
have procured the formation of numerous caravans with the 
character of companies, and with the object of collecting 
precious metals, which they encountered in the placers of 
Arizuma and of Papagueria, but until now they have not 
been able to hold with effect undertakings so laudable. 

Various are the causes on account of which the riches 
which lie buried through all parts of the immense territory 
of the State of Sonora have not been explored. Some of 
these reasons have already been referred to, but, for greater 
clearness, we take this opportunity to recapitulate them all. 
The first, which are much noted, are the following : 

1st. The absolute want of personal security. 

2d. The scarcity of population, and of the means of sub- 
sistence for the few hands that they were able to have de- 
voted to working mines in the immediate vicinity of hostile 
Indians. 

3d. The irregularity and the want of experience and cap- 
ital in those who have undertaken the exploration and the 
extraction of metals, which has occasioned the abandonment 

* The title to all mines in Mexico rests solely upon discovery and 
improvement, without any regard to the proprietorship to the land on 
which the mines are located ; but the proof of discovery and improve- 
ment must he made and recorded in the mineral courts, except in So- 
nora, where the ordinary courts have jurisdiction. 



APPENDIX. 397 

of this class of speculations whenever they presented any 
difficulties, or commenced to be more costly by failing to pro- 
duce metals upon the surface of the earth. Some certain 
speculations which have been directed with regard to the 
rules which regulate mineral industry, and have been pros- 
ecuted with capital, have well compensated the labors and 
efforts of the proprietors. 

Gold and silver, as above said, are not the only mineral 
productions of Sonora. In the part of Muchachos, situated 
in the Sierra Madre, between Tueson and Tubac, and in Mo- 
gollon, a place situated in the mountains of Apuchuria, in 
those of Papagueria, and near the Colorado, are found great 
masses of virgin iron, and abundant veins of the same metal. 
Cinnabar was discovered in 1802 in the hill of Santa Te- 
resa, situated in the mineral of Rio Chico ; and in the hills 
which are at the north of the Colorado, it has been found in 
the past age. Copper is also found in Antunes, Tonuco, 
Bacauchi, Pozo de Crisante, Sierra de Guadalupe, Sierra de 
la Papagueria, and particularly in the Couanea, from whence 
have been extracted great quantities of this metal, with a 
great ley of gold. Metals of lead (metales plomosos) abound in 
Agua Caliente, Alamo-Muerto, La Papagueria, Arispe, and La 
Cieneguilla. From these two last points have been taken 
considerable quantities of them, for supplying all other 
mines of the state [to aid in fusion], and for munitions of 
war. Copperas, or sulphate of iron, is abundant in San Ja- 
vier, San Antonio de la Huerta, and Agua Caliente. In the 
first of these placers a vein runs from south to north, from 
pieces of which, dissolved in water, there results a tint 
which, by evaporation, forms into grains, and produces the 
same effect as the tint of China. In Cucurpe is amianto, or 
incombustible crystal, which the ancients so much valued. 
Marbles of various classes and colors, as well as alabasters 
and jaspers, are found in Opasura, Hermosillo, Uores, La 
Campana, and other points ; but we do not know as yet the 
place from which the Aztecs obtained the beautiful reddish 
marble which they used in the construction of their divinity 
of Chapultepec, which is preserved in the National Museum, 



398 APPENDIX. 

and which, according to all conjectures and probabilities, 
proceeded from the quarries of marble of that state. There 
are quarries of the stone of chrispa, and even the magnet in 
Alamas, Hermosillo, in Sierras of the frontier, and in 'the 
causada of Barbitas, ten leagues distant from Hermosillo, 
near the route of La Cieneguilla. Muriate and carbonate of 
soda, saltpetre, or nitrate of potassa, are found in the margin 
of the rivers which empty into the Gulf of Cortez [of Cali- 
fornia], and particularly in the mouths of the Colorado. 



B. 

REPORT ON THE MINERAL RICHES OF CHIHUAHUA. 

The statistical notices which have until to-day been re- 
ceived, embrace five cantons or departments of that state, 
which show that there exist in it sixteen minerals [districts 
containing mines], of which twelve are in working, and four 
abandoned in consequence of the incessant incursions of bar- 
barous Indians. Their names are Hidalgo del Parral, Minas 
Nuevas, San Francisco del Oro, Santa Barbara, Zopago, Chi- 
nipas, Guazapores, Batozegache, Guadalupe y Calvo, Cuaco- 
gornichie, Galeana, Cosihuiriachic, Santa Eulalia, Barranco, 
and two more, without names, in the canton Caleana. 

Twenty-one mines are found in operation in the twelve 
minerals in action. The number of those abandoned is in- 
creasing, and is not permanent ; and the only cause referred 
to is that many of them are abandoned for want of capital, 
and others from the hostility of the barbarians. The pro- 
ducts of those that were worked in the year 1849 amount 
to 146,818 marks of silver, of a ley of eleven dineros, and 7 
marks, 7 oz., and 4 eighths of gold to the twenty-two quintals. 
The number of haciendas and furnaces for extracting the 
metal from the ore was twenty, and the processes which 
they use in that state are the pat?o and the furnace ; the last 
is the most general. Finally, there has been put in practice 
a third system, by the house of Manning and M'Intosh, for 



APPENDIX. 399 

the purpose of separating the silver by means of the precip- 
itate of copper. The consumptions of the last year, 1849, 
amount to $544,194, notwithstanding which the notices omit 
the returns of various mines, haciendas, furnaces, and water- 
mills. The items are quicksilver at $140 a hundred, gun- 
powder, lime, wood, sulphate of copper, salt, iron, steel, metals 
of aid [metals thrown into the compound to aid the process 
of extracting], tallow, grease, hides, leather, corn, straw, grain, 
flesh, beans, and bars of iron. The number of opeiatives is 
not known with exactness, because the reports only refer to 
certain mines and haciendas, but in these they amount to 
1833, besides day-laborers at five reals (|4h sofa dollar) a day 
for half the time. The most important improvements that 
have been introduced into some of these mines consist in 
the establishment of pumps for facilitating draining, and in 
the introduction of German ovens for fusing a greater quan- 
tity of mineral at a less cost and with greater perfection, 
being so much the more interesting as the condition of the 
metals presents itself more easily to this kind of benefiting. 

Four companies have been established for prosecuting the 
labor of the mines, Preseiia, Rosario, Tajo, and Prieta. The 
first takes its name from Sehor Delille, the second is com- 
posed of Mexicans, and the last two are composed of Mexi- 
cans, English, and naturalized Spaniards. Nothing is known 
in relation to their capitals. Besides the precious metals, 
we find lead in Naica and Babisas, of the canton of Mata- 
moros ; copper, from which only magistral' is taken, is found 
in the canton of Mina, and sulphur and saltpetre in the canton 
of Iturbide. The reports mention nothing in respect to the 
authorities that take cognizance of the affairs of the Mineria ; 
but it is presumed that, as in the rest of the nation, the 
judges of first instance take knowledge of controversies, and 
the courts of mines, if by chance they are established, take 
cognizance of the economy and government of the mines. 

The mint of Guadalupe and Calvo coined in 1848, $720,765, 
and in 1849, $665,225, of which two sums $1,027,130 were 
of silver, and $355,859 in gold, the whole being the proceeds 
of 116,015 marks, 1 oz., and 4 eighths of silver, of the ley of 



400 APPENDIX. 

eleven dineros, and of 2351 marks, 5 oz., 2 eighths of gold, 
with ley of twenty -two carats. This appears from the re- 
ports of the mint of the capital of that state. 



REPORT ON THE MINERAL RICHES OF COAHUILA. 

This state, one of the least populous, and exposed, like all 
the frontier states of the north, to the incessant incursions 
of the barbarous tribes, offers at present very little inter- 
est to those speculations which engender the exercise of 
mineral industry — that which, besides experience and cap- 
ital, requires for its development an abundance of hands and 
entire security. While the publication of the mineral sta- 
tistics of the nation not only brings the idea of manifesting 
the present condition of this branch of industry among us, 
but also that of propagating its exercise as one of the prin- 
cipal elements of riches among the Mexicans, it is necessary 
to speak of the state in which the Mineria is in Coahuila, 
and of hopes which it makes to spring up for the future. 
There are twelve mines actually amparadas, or in labor, in 
the four minerals already mentioned . their names are un- 
known to us, and it is only known that their monthly prod- 
ucts amount to 200 marks [of 8 ounces] of silver and 150 
loads oigreta [litharge]. The number of operatives employ- 
ed in all these amount to 193, and the day laborers receive 
four reals [half a dollar] a day. 

There is no exact notice of the number of mineral dis- 
tricts and single mines abandoned in the State of Coahuila; 
but the number is considerable, according to the informa- 
tion furnished from 1843 by the deputation of Santa Rosa. 
Among those deserving a particular mention is that of the 
Sierra de Timulco and that of Potrerillos, by the good ley of 
the metals of the mines of the first, and by the uniformity 
of the veins and not unappreciable richness of the second. 
These veins run generally from northwest to southeast, and 
in the course they encounter, scattered about, silver-bearing 



APPENDIX. 401 

galena [sulphuret of lead], lead, copper, with sulphuret of 
zinc. The amount of the consumptions of the mines that 
are worked is also unknown ; but it is known that the gun- 
powder costs the operators $9 an aroba [of 25 pounds], of 
lead, $12 a carga of 300 pounds; that of greta, $6; cop- 
per, of superior quality, $16 the hundred weight; the car- 
ga of coal, six reals [three fourths of a dollar], and wood, 
one real a mule-load. The ruins and the heaps of rubbish 
manifest that in other times there was much activity in 
the labor of the mines and haciendas for separating the 
metals; but to-day there are only in existence some fur- 
naces, which are the least costly, which the miners of Coa- 
huila can use for their metals. This they effect generally 
in ovens, and in galemes in the open plain. But this meth- 
od of separating the metals, which Coahuilans have been 
necessitated to adopt as the least expensive, until quicksil- 
ver has notably fallen in price, has not remained stationary, 
as in other parts of the republic. These simple inhabitants 
have succeeded, by the force of experiments, in obtaining as 
a result the power of fusing 25 cargas [of 300 pounds] of 
metal, with the aggregation of 18 cargas of greta, in only 
one furnace and in the space of twenty-four hours, by con- 
suming only 45 pounds of coal for each carga of metal. 

There are three companies in that state for working the 
mines in the mineral district of Ramirez, and another in 
that of Trinudco. There is no notice of the amount of funds 
employed, but it is presumed that they are not considerable, 
by considering the smallness of the fortunes of the inhabit- 
ants of the frontier. 

In government and economy of mines the Assembly of 
Mineria of the valley of Santa Rosa have jurisdiction, but 
in litigations the judges of first instance have jurisdiction, 
to whom a particular law of this state gives authority. 

In Coahuila, besides silver, there is found virgin iron in 
masses of considerable volume and of extraordinary value 
in the Sierra of Mercudo, in Guadalupe, and other points. 

There is copper in Putula or Rios and in Guadalupe. In 
these mineral districts we also encounter lead. Amianto 



402 APPENDIX. 

(incombustible crystal) also abounds in Niezca and in the 
vicinity of Monclova, as also nitre in San Bias, jurisdiction 
of San Buonaventura. In the hills of Gizedo, correspond- 
ent to the district of Santa K-osa, are extracted sulphur and 
copperas. 

It is difficult to ascertain and to mention all the causes 
which have led to the decadence of the mineral industry of 
this state, because the reports which the authorities have 
remitted do not state it exactly ; but there is no doubt that 
they are two, viz., the want of security occasioned by the 
frequent incursions of the barbarians, and the little affec- 
tion which the agricultural people that occupy that state 
have for mining enterprises ; that, as already said, they re- 
quire recognizances, as well as capital and hands, things 
which are scarce enough in the vast territory of the frontier 
state of Coahuila. 



D. 

REPORT ON THE MINERAL RICHES OF LOWER CALIFORNIA. 

The sparse population of this territory, the want of scien- 
tific information in its inhabitants, and the difficulties which 
have existed in the way of keeping up an intercourse with 
their fellow-citizens of the centre of the republic, are causes 
weighty enough for explaining the ignorance in which we 
live concerning the mineral riches of that interesting penin- 
sula. Without doubt, if we are permitted to judge of it from 
the abundance of the precious metals which California of 
the North and Sonora contain, and their contiguities, we 
ought to infer that in the territory of Southern California 
the designated metals should be found in considerable quan- 
tities. The official notices which we possess in respect 
to Lower California fortify this conjecture. Those exhib- 
ited by persons who lack competent instruction upon this 
point contribute in part to foretell what will be the grade of 
prosperity which will come in time with the developing of 
the mineral industry in this territory. 



APPENDIX. 403 

Southern California, by its topographical position alone, 
is called to occupy an important place, not only among the 
integral parts of the nation, but even among foreign parts 
of America which are bounded by the Pacific. If its first 
necessity is attended to, with the augmentation of popula- 
tion commerce will come to give it the consequent move- 
ment and animation, and the Mineria will come to complete 
the circle of its prosperity ; so that it is now difficult to per- 
ceive the grand importance, commercial and political, which 
this despised peninsula, which is called Lower California, 
will yet attain when the transition of time and the sequel 
of events come to realize these Utopian offspring of a patri- 
otic sentiment ; but we will occupy ourselves with the sta- 
tistical mineral notices of that territory. 

There are nine mineral districts (minerales) which are now 
recognized in California : their names are San Antonio, Zule, 
Santa Anna, Muleje, Triumpho, Las Virgenes, El Valle Per- 
dido, Los Flores, Cuecuhilas. There is a range traversing 
from north to south for the space of forty leagues in that 
territory, which contains also a multitude of veins which 
have not been explored. In all these minerals abound, but 
the irregular and inconstant labor of some of the mines does 
not permit us to consider them as in action. 

Explorations of some mines of gold and silver have been 
made in California, but they remain in the same state with 
the other minerales. One and another have been worked 
superficially, but their possessors abandoned them when 
they presented any obstacle, which made the working more 
costly, so that it is no exaggeration to say they all are now 
abandoned. In a country almost a wilderness (desiertd), 
where the want of conveniences in exploration of the mines 
failed to engender the stimulus of acquiring and preserving 
the proprietorship of the discoveries,* and where, with the 
same facility with which they abandon one known vein, they 

* The proprietorship of mines in Mexico is acquired by proof being 
made to the mining court of discovery and actual working ; and is again 
lost by an abandonment of four months ; there is no other source of 
title to mineral lands. 



404 APPENDIX. 

proceed to work another new vein — in a country where the 
great part of the inhabitants might well be considered as 
tribes that have only reached the first grades of civilization, 
rather than organized societies, it is not strange that there 
is a want of mineral recognizances where only the mines 
at which the metals are easily procured, and not costly in 
extracting from the ore, are worked. 

Notwithstanding that which has been said, there are va- 
rious residents of the mineral districts referred to that ex- 
tract gold and silver sufficient to cover their commercial 
transactions, to pay their laborers and the salaries of their 
operatives, to procure certain necessaries, and to enjoy cer- 
tain luxuries which many of their fellow-citizens do not en- 
joy. To ascertain to what value these extractions of met- 
als ascend is extremely difficult for the want of data with 
which to aid any calculation. 

The benefiting (extracting the metals from the ores) is no 
less imperfectly done than the labor of the mines. There 
are no haciendas for benefiting ; many persons that engage 
themselves in mining speculations have in that territory 
one, two, and even five horse-mills, with which they grind 
the metal ; this they mix with quicksilver and salt — imitat- 
ing the process by the patio — in proportion of 50 pounds of 
the first and 75 of the second to 625 (25 arobas) of metal, 
and, proceeding by means of fusion in bad ovens, they obtain 
silver. Some others obtain it by means of vases of refining 
with the aid of lead. 

The consumptions of the Californians in the extraction of 
the precious metals consist of quicksilver, salt, and wood ; 
the first they have purchased in the last years at two dol- 
lars a pound, the second at thirty-seven and a half cents for 
twenty-five pounds, and the third at a quarter of a dollar a 
mule-load. It is to be presumed that when the quicksilver 
of Northern California comes to compete with the quicksilver 
of Spain in the mineral districts of the interior* of the re- 
public, the price of this principal element for conducting the 
working of mines will fall greatly in all the nation, and that 
* This term is applied to all places distant from the capital. 



APPENDIX. 405 

the Mineria will assume a grade of prosperity never yet seen 
in our country ; and Lower California, by its proximity to 
the places of the production of mercury, will obtain it, with- 
out doubt, at a still lower price. The day-laborers, who work 
the mines of this territory, receive for their labor from sev- 
enty-five cents to one dollar ; but there is not a fixed num- 
ber, neither is their occupation constant. 

It is not necessary to speak of the existence of companies 
for exploring mines in a country where there is such a scar- 
city of population, and where there is not an accumulation 
of capital sufficient in order that a part of it might be em- 
ployed in the hazardous enterprises of mineral industry. 
The judges of first instance are the authorities that in Low- 
er California take cognizance of all accounts concerning the 
affairs of mines (a la Mineria). 

In the river which passes by Muleje and Gallinas, the in- 
habitants of those places collect the sands, from which they 
obtain small quantities of gold in dust. In another placer, 
which embraces an extension of seven leagues, they also ex- 
tract some gold in dust in quantities as insignificant as those 
which result from the sands of the river mentioned. 

Silver and gold are the only metals that have claimed the 
attention of the Californians, because they derive an advant- 
age from their extraction, and not because there do not ex- 
ist other metals less valuable, but which yield proportiona- 
bly greater profit to the miners that undertake the explora- 
tion ; these are lead, copper, iron, magistral, crystal of Roca, 
loadstone, and alum. 



E. 

THE REMAINS OF CORTEZ. 



The account of the disposition of the remains of Cortez, 
given on page 279, is the one commonly received, and con- 
tained in works of standard authority. Since this volume 
was placed in the hands of the printers, I have received a 
new number of the Apuentes Historicos, which contains an- 



406 APPENDIX. 

other account, which is undoubtedly the true one. Accord- 
ing to this, when the body of Cortez was first brought to 
America, it was taken to Tezcuco, and buried at the San 
Franciscan convent, beside that of his friend, King Don Fer- 
nando. In the course of the following century it was taken 
to Mexico and buried in the convent of the Jesuits (the Pro- 
for is probably intended). After the Revolution, it was 
transported to Sicily by the agent of his descendant, the 
present " Marquis of the Valley." 



THE END. 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




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